West With Giraffes Quotes

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. —Anatole France, Nobel Laureate, 1921”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“It is a foolish man who thinks stories do not matter—when in the end, they may be all that matter and all the forever we’ll ever know.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“In a long life, there is a singular moment when you know you’ve made more memories than any new ones you’ll ever make. That’s the moment your truest stories—the ones that made you the you that you became—are ever more in the front of your mind, as you begin to reach back for the you that you deemed best.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“It’s a strange thing how you can spend years with some folks and never know them, yet, with others, you only need a handful of days to know them far beyond years.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“Home’s not the place you’re from, Woody. Home’s the place you want to be.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“People look at you peculiar if you talk about the feeling you got for animals, saying animals have no souls, no sense of good or bad, no value up next to humans," he said. "I don't know about that. Sometimes I think animals are the ones who should be saying such things about us." He shook his head. "Animals can tear your heart out. They can maim you. They can kill you dead on instinct alone and saunter into the next minute like it was nothing. But at least you know the ground rules with animals. You can count the cost of breaking the rules. You never know with people. Even the good can hurt you bad, and the bad, well, they're going to hurt you but good." He dropped his arm from the window to rub his gnarled hand. "It's why I keep choosing animals. Even if it kills me. One day, it probably will.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“Time heals all wounds they say. I'm here to tell you that time can wound you all on its own.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“The land you grow up in is a forever thing, remembered when all else is forgotten, whether it did you right or did you wrong.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“The thing about knowing you’re doing something for the last time is that it takes the joy right out of it.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“Because if ever I could claim to have seen the face of God, it was in the colossal faces of those giraffes.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“You can carry around a heavy load only for so long, though, before you’ve got to set it down,”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“Animals can tear your heart out. They can maim you. They can kill you dead on instinct alone and saunter into the next minute like it was nothing. But at least you know the ground rules with animals. You can count the cost of breaking the rules. You never know with people. Even the good can hurt you bad, and the bad, well, they’re going to hurt you but good.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“The thing about destiny and fate and God-sized coincidences is that they fly in the face of being the master of your own life.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“Life is life no matter who or what is living it, boy—a thing to respect,” he said. “You don’t get that, then you’re just a waste of skin.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“In a long life, there is a singular moment when you know you’ve made more memories than any new ones you’ll ever make.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“That’s your first story, but it doesn’t have to be your only story. That’s up to you.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“God knows I was due a little Light Shining on me from Above, whether I believed in such things or not. Like most people, denying it never got in the way of relying on it. Here and now, older than old, I’ve lived long enough to believe then not believe, then believe and not believe more times than I can count, life being the bumpy ride it is. But”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“Other people say grace. Me, I say thanks to what I’m eating. Its life for mine.” He paused, absently rubbing his sorry-looking hand. “Soon enough, I’ll be returning the favor even if it’s only to the worms. We’re just meat when it’s all done. That’s the natural order. What do I care where my meat goes after I’m not using it anymore?” he said, standing up. “Not that I wouldn’t mind being thanked.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“whenever I locked eyes with an animal I felt something more soulful than I ever felt from the humans I knew, and what I saw in that sprawled giraffe’s eye made me ache to the bone.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“Time heals all wounds, they say. I’m here to tell you that time can wound you all on its own. In a long life, there is a singular moment when you know you’ve made more memories than any new ones you’ll ever make. That’s the moment your truest stories—the ones that made you the you that you became—are ever more in the front of your mind, as you begin to reach back for the you that you deemed best. So”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“The thing about knowing you’re doing something for the last time is that it takes the joy right out of it. I’ve done lots of things for the last time in my long life, but I didn’t know it.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“Animals are complete all on their own, living by voices we don’t get to hear, having a knowing far beyond our paltry ken. And giraffes, they seem to know something more. Elephants, tigers, monkeys, zebras . . . whatever you feel around the rest, you feel different around giraffes.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“EPILOGUE AUTHOR’S NOTE HISTORICAL NOTES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. —Anatole France, Nobel Laureate, 1921”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“The land you grow up in is a forever thing, remembered when all else is forgotten, whether it did you right or did you wrong. Even when it flat near kills you. Even when it invades your dreams and stokes your nightmares. Even when you run from it never to return, then find yourself headed straight back for it, and the best you can wish for is to drive through it with your head down and your wits about you, dodging the worst of it so you can get on with your young life somewhere else.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“Some things are so much yours that you’ve got to keep them to yourself. For”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“Memories stick to things. Out of nowhere, something finds your nose, ears, or eyes and you’re on the other side of the country or world or in a whole other decade, being kissed by a doe-eyed beauty or punched by a drunken pal.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“I’d been there not six weeks, Dust Bowl dirt still coating my young rowdy’s lungs—and despite my God-fearing ma, that’s what I was, a dirt-farm rowdy, pure as a cow pie, cunning as a wild hog, and already well acquainted with the county sheriff, the dust layering my every breath leaving little room for the Holy Spirit to breathe on me.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“Animals are complete all their own, living voices we don't get to hear, having a knowing far beyond our paltry ken.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“I’ve tried to forget what it was like as a stray boy heading toward Cuz. I was barely human after the first wretched few days, and as time went on I cared less about being so. When your shriveled stomach’s aching with hunger, you forget all about your hungry heart. And you keep on forgetting it a little each day until a stray dog has more heart or soul than you.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes

“Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes”
― Lynda Rutledge, West With Giraffes