THIS SIDE OF A WILDERNESS Quotes

“It has always been my understanding that truth and freedom can only exist in wild places.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“He never cared too much for parties or people, but misanthropy could easily be cured by several alcoholic drinks.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“Outside is the only place we can truly be inside the world.”
― Daniel J. Rice, THIS SIDE OF A WILDERNESS: A Novel

“If you have not touched the rocky wall of a canyon. If you have not heard a rushing river pound over cobblestones. If you have not seen a native trout rise in a crystalline pool beneath a shattering riffle, or a golden eagle spread its wings and cover you in shadow. If you have not seen the tree line recede to the top of a bare crested mountain. If you have not looked into a pair of wild eyes and seen your own reflection. Please, for the good of your soul, travel west.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“There are places which exist in this world beyond the reach of imagination.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“As the saturating colors of sun-life fade from sight, the ominous moon reaches out its long arm and applies the dark dyes of night.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“Sometimes I feel like I’m losing my mind,” she said with a hint
of sadness.
“You lost your mind a long time ago,” he said seriously. She looked at him with indignation. “That’s a compliment for anyone who knows the freedom and clarity of losing their mind,” he reaffirmed her.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“The mountains knew the definition of freedom. They provided a place where he could find his mind.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“The trees show definitions of themselves subtly like the face of a man.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“Every falling leaf reminds me that I too will soon be separated from these trees. Trying to capture freedom is like trying to catch a falling leaf. Occasionally you may grab one out of the air and hold it in your hands, but now what?”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“A man without enemies is a dishonest man.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“My hands are flowing like sunlight. The shapes and colors are astounding. I don't understand these images that are empowering me. My brush touches the canvas like photons to the earth, and a new world develops, free from my control, yet intrinsically dependent upon me. I am sweating with elation. I have no idea what I am doing, or what it is my hands are trying to see. There is so much strength in this clarity I am overpowered by the independence of it.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“Only lost photographs that were never taken know what my mind speaks of when we are alone together.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“The past and the future were starlight, seemingly so close, but forever out of reach.
Eli felt that starlight, the infinity of knowing nothing but his finite existence.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“This was going to be difficult, because he enjoyed women, but all the ones he has known seemed to be sent as secret assassins on a mission to destroy his pride and ability.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“What man does not seek the power of his dreams, and believe in his ability to match the grace of his illusions.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“Their minds told them this life was not their own. This life was not the one designed for this body and soul. The truth of existence was a happiness separated from the easy happy life. There was music in the forest. There was clean air where nobody could hear him breathe.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“The truth of existence was a happiness separated from the easy happy life. There was music in the forest. There was clean air where nobody could hear him breathe.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“It has always been my belief that you can judge the compatibility of two people by the rhythm of their paddle stroke.”
― Daniel J. Rice, THIS SIDE OF A WILDERNESS: A Novel

“Every man should wake up alone and spend thirty minutes outside. He should spend thirty minutes with the rising sun listening for birds while pacing back and forth in ponderous thought, with a cool breeze on his nose and his arms stretched into the open air. He should spend thirty minutes alone with whatever view is available. Then he should go back to sleep.”
― Daniel J. Rice, THIS SIDE OF A WILDERNESS: A Novel

“He told me to call him Dazar Frihet. He said that our days are freedom. All of these days, the ones our feet carry us through, any one of them we can choose to be free, we just have to be willing to make it happen. He was such a sad young man, but he wasn’t sad for himself, he was the freest person I ever knew. No, he was sad for all the people he saw who were never free. All the people walking around thinking they were free, but were bonded to so many possessions and responsibilities, so much dispassion and anger, that freedom had become a mirage, like a mythical figure or a god, something they worshiped and followed, but never truly understood.”
― Daniel J. Rice, THIS SIDE OF A WILDERNESS: A Novel

“This was going to be difficult, because he enjoyed women, but all the ones he has known seemed to have been sent as secret assassins on a mission to destroy his pride and ability.”
― Daniel J. Rice, This Side of a Wilderness

“Eli returned to the river and paused for a moment midstream. His feet were balanced upon uneven stones. The current tumbled around him. The canyon walls were steep and jagged and solid. The colors beneath the surface stirred and glittered. He wanted to hold his face under water and breathe in their beauty. He dipped his fingers into the snow-cold transient texture and felt a tingle. He closed his eyes to see this sensation clearly. He breathed. He put his river-wet hand up to his face and felt the freshness permeate his skin. Water droplets dripped from his face and returned to the river. He opened his eyes as if they were separate from his body, separate from the tension of life, distant from any distraction. He breathed.”
― Daniel J. Rice, THIS SIDE OF A WILDERNESS: A Novel

“There is happiness here that others have found, though it must be floating on the dreams they’ve drowned. I shall live my life with buoyancy. My hopes and dreams wait ahead of me.”
― Daniel J. Rice, THIS SIDE OF A WILDERNESS: A Novel

“Eli returned to the river and paused for a moment midstream. His feet were balanced upon uneven stones. The current tumbled around him. The canyon walls were steep and jagged and solid. The colors beneath the surface stirred and glittered. He wanted to hold his face under water and breathe in their beauty. He dipped his fingers into the snow-cold transient texture and felt a tingle. He closed his eyes to see this sensation clearly. He breathed. He put his hand up to his face and felt the freshness enter his soul. Water droplets dripped from his skin and returned to the river. He opened his eyes as if they were separate from his body, separate from the tension of life, distant from any distraction. He breathed.”
― Daniel J. Rice, THIS SIDE OF A WILDERNESS: A Novel

“The molting light glowed on the horizon where darkness wriggled itself free and shook off the sun like the nymphal skin of a mayfly. The magenta sky fell down. Golden embers of fire disappeared into darkness. This was a mysterious world and he wanted to paint it. He wanted to capture it the way he saw it now. He crawled into his tent and fell asleep to the thought that we are all painters of a mysterious world, a world of colors only magic could explain, and viewed only through the prismatic distortion of our own eyes.”
― Daniel J. Rice, THIS SIDE OF A WILDERNESS: A Novel