Terry Tempest Williams Quotes

When silence is a choice, it is an unnerving presence. When silence is imposed, it is censorship.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

the unexpected action of deep listening can create a space of transformation capable of shattering complacency and despair.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

To write,” Marguerite Duras remarked, “is also not to speak. It is to keep silent. It is to howl noiselessly.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

There is an art to writing, and it is not always disclosure. The act itself can be beautiful, revelatory, and private.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

When I look in the mirror, I see a woman with secrets. When we don’t listen to our intuition, we abandon our souls. And we abandon our souls because we are afraid if we don’t, others will abandon us.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

What is it about the relationship of a mother that can heal or hurt us? Her womb is the first landscape we inhabit. It is here we learn to respond - to move, to listen, to be nourished and grow. In her body we grow to be human as our tails disappear and our gills turn to lungs. Our maternal environment is perfectly safe - dark, warm, and wet. It is a residency inside the Feminine. When we outgrow our mother's body, our cramps become her own. We move. She labors. Our body turns upside down in hers as we journey through the birth canal. She pushes in pain. We emerge, a head. She pushes one more time, and we slide out like a fish. Slapped on the back by the doctor, we breath. The umbilical cord is cut - not at our request. Separation is immediate. A mother reclaims her body, for her own life. Not ours. Minutes old, our first death is our own birth.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

What is evolution if not creative adaptation and the progression of our own souls?

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Choosing with integrity means finding ways to speak up that honor your reality, the reality of others, and your willingness to meet in the center of that large field. It’s hard sometimes.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Respect is primary.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Her body was rounded like earth. Stories. Breath. . . . Her eyes have been painted closed. I understand. To tell a story you must travel inward.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

We are contemporary citizens living in a technological world. Swimming in crosscultural waters can be dangerous, and if you are honest you can't stay there very long. Sooner or later you have to look at your own reflection and decide what to do with yourself.We are urban people. We make periodic pilgrimages to the country. . . . If we align ourselves with the spirit of place we will find humility fused with joy.The land holds stories.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Listening over and over to the voices through a family of instruments allowed us to recognize and appreciate the dignity and uniqueness of each living thing in the meadow and forest.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

If so, then it was also here where I came to know I can survive what hurts. I believed in my capacity to stand back up and run into the waves again and again, no matter the risk.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Here is the world. It is not a safe place, but however frightening and bewildering life may become, we can survive our fears, grab them by the wolf ’s tail as Peter did, and make peace with the world.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Agitation gives birth to creation.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions. Can we be equitable? Can we be generous? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinions? And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously, relentlessly, without giving up--ever--trusting our fellow citizens to join with us in our determined pursuit of a living democracy?

~ Terry Tempest Williams

But harboring regrets is making love to the past, and there is no movement here.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Did I have the courage to forge a path

~ Terry Tempest Williams

We mask our needs as the needs of others.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES when we go against our instincts? What are the consequences of not speaking out? What are the consequences of guilt, shame, and doubt?

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Today, I feel stronger, learning to live within the natural cycles of a day and to not expect too much of myself. As women, we hold the moon in our bellies. It is too much to ask to operate on full-moon energy three hundred and sixty-five days a year. I am in a crescent phase.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Beauty is transformed over time, and not without destruction.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

I believe we must do things in our lives for the right reasons, because we enjoy doing them, with no expectation of getting something back in return. Otherwise, we are constantly being disappointed. She moved her turquoise bracelet back and forth on her wrist. So I had two sons, John and Richard, because I wanted to, not because I thought they would rescue me in old age. I got out of all social organizations and clubs in my fifties so I could spend time with my grandchildren, not because they would give something back to Jack and me later on, but because that was what I wanted to do--and I have loved doing it. Believe me, these have been selfish decisions.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

For far too long we have been seduced into walking a path that did not lead us to ourselves. For far too long we have said yes when we wanted to say no. And for far too long we have said no when we desperately wanted to say yes. . . . When we don't listen to our intuition, we abandon our souls. And we abandon our souls because we are afraid if we don't, others will abandon us.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Water is nothing if not ingemination, an encore to the tenacity of life.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Each of us has one. Each voice is distinct and has something to say. Each voice deserves to be heard. But it requires the act of listening.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

My voice is born repeatedly in the fields of uncertainty.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

My grandmother simply shook her head and said, You know what you saw. The bird doesn't need to be counted, and neither do you.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Can you be inside and outside at the same time?I think this is where I live.I think this is where most women live.I know this is where writers live.Inside to write. Outside to glean.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

A pencil is a wand and a weapon. Be careful. Protect yourself. It can be glorious.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Conversation is the vehicle for change. We test our ideas. We hear our own voice in a concert with another. And inside those pauses of listening, we approach new territories of thought. A good argument, call it a discussion, frees us. Words fly out of our mouths like threatened birds. Once released, they may never return. If they do, they have chosen home and the bird-worms are calmed into an ars poetica.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Not everything is meant for all to hear.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Finding one’s voice is a process of finding one’s passion.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

We know the quality of another’s heart through her voice.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Once you know that you have a voice,” Louis said, “it’s no longer the voice that matters, but what is behind the voice.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Your voice is the wildest thing you own,” Brooke says to me. “And you’re giving it away. You can’t see it. Your obsession is blinding you.” He is angry. He is talking in shorthand. “You’re losing yourself.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

CONVERSATION is the vehicle for change.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

Faith is the centerpiece of a connected life. It allows us to live by the grace of invisible strands. It is a belief in a wisdom superior to our own. Faith becomes a teacher in the absence of fact.

~ Terry Tempest Williams

I admire how she protects her energy and understands her limitations.

~ Terry Tempest Williams