Dan O'Brien > Quotes

“You can only look forward to a South Dakota winter if, as with childbirth, remodeling a house, or writing a novel, you're able to forget how bad it was the last time.”
― Dan O'Brien, Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch

“The mythic American character is made up of the virtues of fairness, self-reliance, toughness, and honesty. Those virtues are generally stuffed into a six-foot-tall, dark-haired, can-do kind of guy who is at once a family man, attractive to strange women, carefree, stable, realistic, and whimsical. in the lore of America, that man lives on the Great Plains. he's from Texas, Dodge City, Cheyenne, the Dakotas, or somewhere in Montana. In fact, the seedbed of this American character, from the days of de Tocqueville through Andrew Jackson, Wyattt Earp, Pony Express riders, pioneers, and cowboys to modern caricatures played by actors such as Tom Mix, Gary Cooper, and John Wayne has aways been the frontier. It's a place with plenty of room to roam, great sunsets, clear lines between right and wrong, and lots of horses. It's also a place that does not exist and never has. The truth is that there has never been much fairness out here.”
― Dan O'Brien, Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch

“...when profound questions are asked of the heart, the answers are best kept to yourself.”
― Dan O'Brien

“The gyrfalcon Dan flew that day was a bird of the year who was just learning to hunt. When he brought her out, I shook my head at the size of her. She was massive; Dan had aptly named her Jabba the Hut. As with all falcons, female gyrfalcons are a third larger than the males. ... She thought that she was a person and treated Dan as her mate.This gave new meaning to the term "henpecked.”
― Dan O'Brien, The Rites of Autumn

“These are good people out here,' he said. 'Most honest people in the world. They wouldn't lie to you for anything.' He shook his head. 'But they'll lie to themselves every time.”
― Dan O'Brien, Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch

“The final payment for America's cheap food of the last century is still outstanding.”
― Dan O'Brien, Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch