Jon Krakauer

Early on a difficult climb, especially a solo climb, you’re hyper-aware of the abyss pulling at your back, constantly feeling its call,…

— Jon Krakauer

“Climbing mattered. The danger bathed the world in a halogen glow that caused everything—the sweep of the rock, the orange and yellow…

— Jon Krakauer

“It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume…

— Jon Krakauer

He read a lot. He used a lot of big words. I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was…

— Jon Krakauer

But [Everett] and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That’s what was great about them. They tried. Not many…

— Jon Krakauer

“he was ready, perhaps, to shed a little of the armor he wore around his heart, that upon returning to civilization, he…

— Jon Krakauer

“Continually question climbing pursuits. Do they draw one back to the climbing community? Or do they lead along the [inner-directed] path? This…

— Jon Krakauer

“The boy unmasked the gaping void in Franz's life even as he helped fill it.”

— Jon Krakauer

“Unlike Muir and Thoreau, McCandless went into the wilderness not primarily to ponder nature or the world at large but, rather, to…

— Jon Krakauer

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

— Jon Krakauer

You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It…

— Jon Krakauer

I mean, how can you not be a feminist if you have a brain in your head? If you’re not a feminist,…

— Jon Krakauer

“...I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain. And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of…

— Jon Krakauer

“going to have to be real careful not to accept any gifts from them in the future because they will think they…

— Jon Krakauer

“He must have been very brave and very strong, at the end, not to do himself in.”

— 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

“According to many peer-reviewed studies, a large percentage of the victims of non-stranger rapes “actually feared they were going to be killed,”…

— Jon Krakauer

“traumatized people find themselves reenacting some aspect of the trauma scene in disguised form, without realizing what they are doing….There”

— Jon Krakauer

“...Both Elizabeth [Smart] and Ruby [Jessop] were fourteen when they were kidnapped, raped and "kept captive by polygamous fanatics." The main difference…

— Jon Krakauer

“He lived on the streets with bums, tramps, and winos for several weeks. Vegas would not be the end of the story,…

— Jon Krakauer

He needed his solitude at times, but he wasn't a hermit. He did a lot of socializing. Sometimes I think it was…

— Jon Krakauer

It is true that I miss intelligent companionship, but there are so few with whom I can share the things that mean…

— Jon Krakauer

“When Alex left for Alaska," Franz remembers, "I prayed. I asked God to keep his finger on the shoulder of that one;…

— Jon Krakauer

At that stage of my youth, death remained as abstract a concept as non-Euclidean geometry or marriage. I didn't yet appreciate its…

— Jon Krakauer

What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now?

— Jon Krakauer