Writing is hard for every last one of us—straight white men included. Coal mining is harder. Do you think miners stand around… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Aside from marrying my husband and having my children, hiking the PCT was the best thing I ever did. The hike very… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
I'd walk and think about my entire life. I'd find my strength again, far from everything that had made my life ridiculous. — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Being so alone and so silent for so long gave me the opportunity to see how our brains actually work. I think… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
When someone you love truly dies, you have to find them over and over again in the world, and I think you… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
I think being a woman alone enhanced the impulse in others to be generous. What we're told is that to be a… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
On my hike my brain was left to wander. That was often maddening because it was tedious and monotonous sometimes, but then… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Of course some people manage to write books really young and publish really young. But for most writers, it takes several years… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Your assumptions about the lives of others are in direct relation to your naïve pomposity. Many people you believe to be rich… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
I actually don't have any fear of people reading Wild and going out unprepared. Because one of the best things that ever… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
If, as a culture, we don’t bear witness to grief, the burden of loss is placed entirely upon the bereaved, while the… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
The most important thing for aspiring writers is for them to give themselves permission to be brave on the page, to write… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
I think the first thing - if you want to be a writer - the first thing you need to do is… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
She tried to think of what to say to make it all better again, or at least the way it was before… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
I am an advocate of honesty and openness, and I think deceit is a dangerous seed to plant and let grow in… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
I think a lot of people have the idea of an editor being someone who comes in like a dictator, and says,… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
I had to change. I had to change was the thought that drove me in those months of planning. Not into a… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Not everyone wants to know everything their partner did. Maybe it's enough to say, "Things aren't going well in our marriage. I've… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Writing can be such a lonely endeavor that I do think community is also important.Meeting at cafes and exchanging work and reading… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Don’t do what you know on a gut level to be the wrong thing to doI don’t think there’s a single dumbass… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“She understands that attention is the first and final act of love, and that the ultimate dwindling resource in the human arrangement isn’t cheap… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“The most terrible and beautiful and interesting things happen in life. For some of you, those things have already happened. Whatever happens to you… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Of course you want someone special to love you. A majority of the people who write to me inquire about how they can get… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
It's still true that literary works by women, gays, and writers of color are often framed as specific, rather than universal, small rather than… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“And you have to do it no matter what is true. No matter what is hard.” — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“Don’t listen to those people who suggest you should be “over” your daughter’s death by now. The people who squawk the loudest about such… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“. . . there was the actual doing it, quickly followed by the grim realization of what it meant to do it, followed by… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
He was the most ordinary man in all the world, and yet in her memory he'd become luminous, like the prince in a fairy… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Love is our essential nutrient. Without it, life has little meaning. It's the best thing we have to give and the most valuable thing… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“I never believed the boys were angry. I believed they were hurt and anger was the safest manifestation of their sorrow. It was the… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
