Peter Matthiessen Quotes

United States, Writer
May 22, 1927 – April, 5, 2014.

Peter Matthiessen (May 22, 1927 – April 5, 2014) was an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, zen teacher and CIA agent. A co-founder of the literary magazine The Paris Review, he was the only writer to have won the National Book Award in both fiction and nonfiction.

Also known as Novelist, Naturalist

In nonfiction, you have that limitation, that constraint, of telling the truth.

Peter Matthiessen
- Truth
When I'm in the field, when I'm working, I keep very careful notes. I wear big shirts with big breast pockets, and I carry in them two little spiral notebooks.

Peter Matthiessen

I was just very interested in the American frontier and the growth of capitalism - those enormous fortunes that were being made, more often than not, on the blood of poor people, black people, Indian people. They were the ones who paid very dearly for those great fortunes.

Peter Matthiessen
- People
- Great
- American
I think in any writing you're paying attention to detail.

Peter Matthiessen
- Writing
- Attention
Here I am, safely returned over those peaks from a journey far more beautiful and strange than anything I had hoped for or imagined - how is it that this safe return brings such regret?

Peter Matthiessen
- Beautiful
- Journey
- Regret
I used to distinguish between my fiction and nonfiction in terms of superiority or inferiority.

Peter Matthiessen
In fiction, you have a rough idea what's coming up next - sometimes you even make a little outline - but in fact you don't know. Each day is a whole new - and for me, a very invigorating - experience.

Peter Matthiessen
- Up
- Experience