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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Jon Krakauer Quotes

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

– Jon Krakauer

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.

– Jon Krakauer

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

– Jon Krakauer

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

– Jon Krakauer

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.

– Jon Krakauer

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.

– Jon Krakauer

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

– Jon Krakauer

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

– Jon Krakauer

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

– Jon Krakauer

The way to Everest is not a Yellow Brick Road.

– Jon Krakauer

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

– Jon Krakauer

I’m intrigued by fanatics – people who are seduced by the promise, or the illusion, of the absolute.

– Jon Krakauer

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

– Jon Krakauer

When I start any book, I have no idea what I’m going to do.

– Jon Krakauer

Short form media is reductionist by nature.

– Jon Krakauer

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.

– Jon Krakauer

Heaven, for me, is one focused project – it’s like a weird form of autism.

– Jon Krakauer

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.

– Jon Krakauer

Military investigations are designed not to find anyone guilty.

– Jon Krakauer

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.

– Jon Krakauer

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

– Jon Krakauer

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

– Jon Krakauer

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.

– Jon Krakauer

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.

– Jon Krakauer

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.

– Jon Krakauer

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.

– Jon Krakauer