Born on May 17th

"Humans are the big thing that cause damage in life - in war or whatever - and if I can get away from that and into a wilderness situation, I'm OK. You can more or less live on your own merit."

"Yes, I've been in an igloo. They're surprisingly cozy and warm - small, though, you can't really stand up in some."

"I have a pickup truck. And I prefer to be with dogs or on my sailboat than in a car - actually, more than any other place on Earth."

"I think that what computers have done is just disastrous to the language."

"I sail, run dogs, ride horses, play professional poker and tell stories about the stuff I've been through. And I'm still a romantic; I still want Bambi to make it out of the fire."

"My folks were drunks, and I had a rough childhood - really rough - in fact, rougher than I thought about."

"Name the book that made the biggest impression on you. I bet you read it before you hit puberty. In the time I've got left, I intend to write artistic books - for kids - because they're still open to new ideas."

"I ran the Iditarod twice. I finished once. I came in 42nd or 43rd place out of 70 plus teams the first time, and I scratched 80 miles from Nome the second time. You can read about my experience in the race in my books 'Woodsong' and 'Winterdance.'"

"School didn't work for me. I hated it."

"Adults are locked into car payments and divorces and work. They haven't got time to think fresh."

"You're never the same after you run the Iditarod, and I still lust to go out and run with dogs, even though I know that I shouldn't. But I'd give just about anything to be able to do it again. To see the horizon again from the back of a dog team would be wonderful."

"Years ago, when I was writing westerns, other writers who were friends of mine wanted me to collaborate with them. And it just didn't work."

"I was raised on farms by people who didn't have Wal-Mart. They had to make their own sleds, harnesses, clothing, etc."

"Look at Inuit clothing. Their stuff still works better than Cabela's. I've made my own parkas, mukluks, footgear, and it is good to 60 degrees below zero. All I did was copy the patterns that came down from the Inuits."

"The maximum expression of running dogs is the Iditarod. You enter a state of primitive exaltation, and you never return. You're never normal again."

"In sailing, I single-hand, and I want to do the Horn. The Horn is the maximum expression of sailing, the way the Iditarod is the maximum expression of running dogs. It's not to write about it; it's to experience the maximum thing."

"It's not for me. I tried human flesh and it's too salty for my taste."

"If we knew the meaning to everything that is happening to us, then there would be no meaning."

"In any country there must be people who have to die. They are the sacrifices any nation has to make to achieve law and order."

"Sometimes people mistake the way I talk for what I am thinking."

"I want to be remembered as a great athlete. As a boxing champion."

"I myself consider myself the most powerful figure in the world."

"I'm a good Muslim and I'm only interested in Islam."

"I love the Americans. They are my best friends."

"You cannot run faster than a bullet."

"I am the hero of Africa."

"I was a good soldier in the British Army. I was born in a very, very poor family. And I enlisted to escape hunger. But my officers were Scottish and they loved me. The Scots are good, you know."

"In the field of innovation & tech, technology is the canvas where human imagination meets the logic of physical reality."

"We do not build machines to replace our thoughts, but to expand the boundaries of what we can dream. As a influential author, this is the foundational truth I have observed."

"The future is compiled from the small lines of code we write today in search of harmony."