How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.
Barry Lopez Quotes
We simply do not understand our place in the universe and have not the courage to admit it.
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| Birth: | 6th January, 1945 |
| Nationality: | American |
| Profession: | Author |
About
Lopez was born in Port Chester, New York and raised in Southern California and New York City. He attended the University of Notre Dame, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees there in 1966 and 1968. He also attended New York University and the University of Oregon. His first stories appeared in 1966,
Lopez has written introductions for and guest edited a number of books and anthologies, including Home Ground with Debra Gwartney, The Best American Spiritual Writing 2005, and The Future of Nature. In 2008, he guest edited two volumes of the journal Manoa with Frank Stewart, Maps of Reconciliation and Gates of Reconciliation. Lopez along with Peter Matthiessen, Terry Tempest Williams, and James Galvin (poet) was hailed in Mark Tredinnick's The Land's Wild Music (Trinity University Press, 2005) in which Tredinnick analyzed how the landscape nourished and developed Lopez's writing.
An archive of Lopez's manuscripts and other work has been established at Texas Tech University.
Lopez lives in western Oregon.
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