Peter Benchley Quotes

United States, Author
May 8, 1940 – February, 11, 2006.

Peter Bradford Benchley (May 8, 1940 – February 11, 2006) was an American author, screenwriter, and ocean activist. He is known for the bestselling novel Jaws and co-wrote its subsequent film adaptation with Carl Gottlieb. Several more of his works were also adapted for both cinema and television, including The Deep, The Island, Beast, and White Shark.

Also known as Screenwriter, Activist

We are already perilously close to killing off the top of the oceanic food chain - with catastrophic consequences that we can't begin to imagine. Let us not, in the heat of anger, reduce the already devastated population of great white sharks by one more member.

Peter Benchley
- Great
- Food
I didn't invent the fear of sharks; it's as old as mankind, and that - to take that responsibility would mean that Mario Puzo should take the blame for the Mafia.

Peter Benchley
- Fear
- Responsibility

Fascinations breeds preparedness, and preparedness, survival.

Peter Benchley
- Survival
We should be afraid of sharks half as much as sharks should be afraid of us.

Peter Benchley
It is not that I don't have a fear of sharks, it is that I have a respect for them, so that I know any more than if I were to go into the jungle, I would have a fear of tigers, that I would try to lower the odds.

Peter Benchley
- Fear
- Respect
I dive as much as I can.

Peter Benchley
I've never been hurt by a sea creature, except for jellyfish and sea urchins.

Peter Benchley
- Hurt
- Sea
It's hard to care deeply for something that might turn on you and eat you.

Peter Benchley

Reputations rise and fall almost as regularly as the tides.

Peter Benchley
- Fall
In a deeply tribal sense, we love our monsters, and I think that is the key to it right there. It is monsters; it is learning about them: it is both thrill and safety. You can think of them without being desperately afraid because they are not going to come into your living room and eat you. That is 'Jaws.'

Peter Benchley
- Learning
- Safety
I'm a babe in the woods when it comes to the Internet.

Peter Benchley