The maximum expression of running dogs is the Iditarod. You enter a state of primitive exaltation, and you never return. You're never normal again. Gary Paulsen More Quotes by Gary Paulsen More Quotes From Gary Paulsen I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books. Gary Paulsen novelists reading book If books could have more, give more, be more, show more, they would still need readers who bring to them sound and smell and light and all the rest that can’t be in books. The book needs you. Gary Paulsen smell light book Words are alive--when I've found a story that I love, I read it again and again, like playing a favorite song over and over. Reading isn't passive--I enter the story with the characters, breathe their air, feel their frustrations, scream at them to stop when they're about to do something stupid, cry with them, laugh with them. Reading for me, is spending time with a friend. A book is a friend. You can never have too many. Gary Paulsen stupid song book We make a mistake in thinking we own pets - the animals open their lives up and make us a part of them. Gary Paulsen mistake animal thinking Do what you can as you can. Trouble, problems, will come no matter what you do , and you must respond as they come. Gary Paulsen no-matter-what problem matter Patience, he thought. So much of this was patience - waiting, and thinking and doing things right. So much of all this, so much of all living was patience and thinking. Gary Paulsen waiting patience thinking A book is a friend. You can never have too many. Gary Paulsen book We don’t like to think of ourselves as prey—it is a lessening thought—but the truth is that in our arrogance and so-called knowledge we forget that we are not unique. We are part of nature as much as other animals, and some animals—sharks, fever-bearing mosquitoes, wolves and bear, to name but a few—perceive us as a food source, a meat supply, and simply did not get the memo about how humans are superior. It can be shocking, humbling, painful, very edifying and sometimes downright fatal to run into such an animal. Gary Paulsen unique running animal It was as though I had been dying of thirst and the librarian had handed me a five gallon bucket of water. I drank and drank. The only reason I am here and not in prison is because of that woman. I was a loser, but she showed me the power of reading. Gary Paulsen dying reading water Things seemed to go back and forth between reality and imagination--except that it was all reality. Gary Paulsen back-and-forth imagination reality I tried to contain myself... but I escaped! Gary Paulsen freedom Read like a wolf eats and write every day. Every. Single. Day. Gary Paulsen Name the book that made the biggest impression on you. I bet you read it before you hit puberty. In the time I've got left, I intend to write artistic books - for kids - because they're still open to new ideas. Gary Paulsen writing kids book He did not know how long it took, but later he looked back on this time of crying in the corner of the dark cave and thought of it as when he learned the most important rule of survival, which was that feeling sorry for yourself didn't work. It wasn't just that it was wrong to do, or that it was considered incorrect. It was more than that--it didn't work. Gary Paulsen sorry dark long The essence of war is insanity. Destruction, death, women widowed, children orphaned, lands plundered, property destroyed, lives decimated - it's all bad. Gary Paulsen land war children I've been reading and researching various aspects of history - Dickens' London, Nelson's sea battles, Magellan's nautical explorations, the weapons and battles and key figures of the American Civil War - for most of my life. I pick up a book here or there or see a documentary or talk with an expert in the subject, and my curiosity about the one area of study and discovery always leads to another. Gary Paulsen reading war book Books make me feel safe. Books make me feel normal. Gary Paulsen normal safe book Personal inspection at zero altitude. The stories come from my life - if not my own experiences, then about topics and subjects that interest me. Gary Paulsen topics zero stories She was brilliant and joyous and she believed- probably correctly- that libraries contain the answers to all things, to everything, and that if you can't find the information you seek in the library, then such information probably doesn't exist in this or any parallel universe now or ever to be known. She was thoughtful and kind and she always believed the best of everybody. She was, above all else, a master librarian and she knew where to find any book on any subject in the shortest possible time. And she was wonderfully unhinged. Gary Paulsen library thoughtful book I spent uncounted hours sitting at the bow looking at the water and the sky, studying each wave, different from the last, seeing how it caught the light, the air, the wind; watching patterns, the sweep of it all, and letting it take me. The sea. Gary Paulsen ocean light air