Koko The Gorilla Quotes

“Koko understands that she’s special because of all the attention she's had from professors, and caregivers, and the media.”
― Francine Patterson

“I realized that when she tears a page out of a magazine or a book, it’s not trash. It’s meaningful. She wants us to see it. Plus, she also uses some cards we gave her with objects printed on them when she has something to say. I remember one Valentine's Day, she had some cards out waiting for me that stated pretty clearly “Where are the goodies?”
― Francine Patterson

“This is really weird, but you know that movie Jurassic Park? They saturated the media with ads that were very graphic with dinosaurs eating humans and all kinds of things. Well, Koko saw them, and several days later one of our caregivers reported her acting very strangely towards her toy dinosaurs and alligators. She was acting as though they were real, and was very frightened of them, and didn't want to touch them. She was using tools to get them away from her. I do believe she had a nightmare about them.”
― Francine Patterson

“I would much prefer to have a baby gorilla than a baby human.”
― Francine Patterson

“Uncontaminated by humans, they are definitely closer to living in the now. Our problem is that we live in the past and we live in the future, but we very rarely dwell in the now. They are so much in harmony with nature, we surely could use them as a model.”
― Francine Patterson

“Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world.”
― Noam Chomsky