“Almost every magazine piece I've ever written, I felt like I haven't done it justice, like it was just a gloss.”

“Antarctica has this mythic weight. It resides in the collective unconscious of so many people, and it makes this huge impact, just like outer space. It's like going to the moon.”

“Antarctica is a very alien environment, and you can't survive here more than minutes if you're not equipped properly and doing the right thing all the time.”

“As I point out in the very first pages of 'Into the Wild,' I approached this book not as a normal, you know, unbiased journalist.”

“Climbing Mount Everest was the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life. I wish I'd never gone. I suffered for years of PTSD and still suffer from what happened. I'm glad I wrote a book about it. But, you know, if I could go back and relive my life, I would never have climbed Everest.”

“Happiness means nothing to me. I just want to have meaning and purpose.”

“Heaven, for me, is one focused project - it's like a weird form of autism.”

“I knew that you couldn't make a living simply writing about the outdoors, so I made an effort from the beginning of my freelance career to write about other subjects.”

“I love being outdoors, being in the mountains and the desert, and my wife enjoys that too. That's one of the things that sustain our relationship.”

“I never studied writing, but I'd always been a reader and had a secret fantasy about being a writer.”

“I really enjoy researching, and for almost every piece, I research enough to write a book.”

“I think part of the appeal of Antarctica is experiencing some sort of power, the forces of the natural world.”

“I'm intrigued by fanatics - people who are seduced by the promise, or the illusion, of the absolute.”

“Military investigations are designed not to find anyone guilty.”

“Most friendly fire incidents aren't investigated properly because of neglect or a natural inclination to cover up the embarrassing fact that they killed one of their own.”

“Once you believe that God is speaking directly to you, there is no discussion.”

“Rob Hall was, without doubt, the most competent guide in mountaineering.”

“Short form media is reductionist by nature.”

“The pieces I've written for 'Outside' magazine are definitely my best work, and they're virtually all about the outdoors.”

“The thing that is most beautiful about Antarctica for me is the light. It's like no other light on Earth, because the air is so free of impurities. You get drugged by it, like when you listen to one of your favorite songs. The light there is a mood-enhancing substance.”

“The way to Everest is not a Yellow Brick Road.”

“There is nothing glamorous or romantic about war. It's mostly about random pointless death and misery.”

“There's something about being afraid, about being small, about enforced humility that draws me to climbing.”

“When I start any book, I have no idea what I'm going to do.”

“When I was 23, I went to Alaska by myself into the glaciers of the coast range and climbed a mountain by myself. It was incredibly reckless, incredibly stupid. But I was lucky. And I survived, and I came back to tell my story.”

“You can get a lawyer with two months off or a New York socialite who wants to play at being Lewis and Clark and put them up there, but Everest is still in charge; it can still kick butt.”