Roger Deakin > Quotes

“All of us , I believe , carry about in our heads places and landscapes we shall never forget because we have experienced such intensity of life there :places where, like the child that 'feels its life in every limb' in Wordsworth's poem'We are seven' ,our eyes have opened wider, and all our senses have somehow heightened.By way of returning the compliment , we accord these places that have given us such joy a special place in our memories and imaginations. They live on in us, wherever we may be, however far from them.”
― Roger Deakin, Notes From Walnut Tree Farm

“To enter a wood is to pass into a different world in which we ourselves are transformed.”
― Roger Deakin, Wildwood: A Journey through Trees

“There's more truth about a camp than a house. Planning laws need not worry the improvising builder because temporary structures are more beautiful anyway, and you don't need permission for them. There's more truth about a camp because that is the position we are in. The house represents what we ourselves would like to be on earth: permanent, rooted, here for eternity. But a camp represents the true reality of things: we're just passing through.”
― Roger Deakin, Wildwood: A Journey through Trees

“I need someone to fold the sheet, someone to take the other end of the sheet and walk towards me and fold once , then step back , fold and walk towards me again .We all need someone to fold the sheet.Someone to hitch on the coat at the neck .Someone to put on the kettle. Someone to dry up while I wash.”
― Roger Deakin, Notes From Walnut Tree Farm

“When you enter the water, something, like a metamorphosis happens. Leaving behind the land, you go through the looking glass surface and enter a new world in which survival, not ambition or desire, is the dominant aim.”
― Roger Deakin, Waterlog: A Swimmer’s Journey Through Britain

“I have always thought of the moths and butterflies as a bonus to the flowers, as though Nature were admiring her own work.”
― Roger Deakin, Wildwood: A Journey through Trees

“I know of nothing uglier or more saddening than a machine-flailed hedge. It speaks of the disdain of nature and craft that still dominates our agriculture.”
― Roger Deakin, Wildwood: A Journey through Trees

“I wanted to follow the rain on its meanderings about our land to rejoin the sea, to break out of the frustration of a lifetime doing lengths, of endlessly turning back on myself like a tiger pacing its cage”
― Roger Deakin

“The real wages of potters are in the daily silent appreciations of each of their customers as they pour the morning tea from their teapot, or drink coffee from their mug, or eat dinner off their plate. To be this involved in the daily lives of people who appreciate and admire your work enough to buy it must bring deep reassurance. It is a kind of immortality you can enjoy while still living.
The same goes for the woodworker. You are part of the community.”
― Roger Deakin, Notes From Walnut Tree Farm

“At night you write out of guilt, but in the morning you write out of hope.”
― Roger Deakin, Notes From Walnut Tree Farm

“When you swim, you feel your body for what it mostly is – water – and it begins to move with the water around it. No wonder we feel such sympathy for beached whales; we are beached at birth ourselves. To swim is to experience how it was before you were born.”
― Roger Deakin, Waterlog

“My house was once an acorn.”
― Roger Deakin, Notes From Walnut Tree Farm

“I was awakened early by the massed cockerels of Osh. There had been heavy rain overnight, and as I lay in bed I could hear the first traffic splashing through deep puddles in the potholed streets. Unfamiliar birdsong floated in, and a thin steam rose off the windowsills. I found myself in a faded hotel suite of two bedrooms, bathroom and huge sitting room full of ancient threadbare sofas draped in rugs. I felt very much at home; even more so when the hotelier brought in a breakfast tray of fresh, hot bread, honey, butter and chai. I even enjoyed the stampede of silverfish that fled the bathroom and the rusty water of the shower. I knew for certain I was going to like Kyrgyzstan.”
― Roger Deakin, Wildwood: A Journey through Trees

“I want my writing to bring people not just to think of "trees" as they mostly do now, but of each individual tree, and each kind of tree.”
― Roger Deakin

“When you swim, you feel your body for what it mostly is – water – and it begins to move with the water around it. No wonder we feel such sympathy for beached whales; we are beached at birth ourselves. To swim is to experience how it was before you were born. Once in the water, you are immersed in an intensely private world as you were in the womb.”
― Roger Deakin, Waterlog