Daniel Quinn Archive

“This story, like every story, has a beginning, a middle, and an end. And each of these parts is a story in itself.” – Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

“For the moment all you have to know is that two fundamentally different stories have been enacted here during the lifetime of man. One began to be enacted here some two or three million years ago by the people we’ve agreed to cal Leavers and is still being enacted here some ten or twelve thousand [...]

“They’ve been told an explaining story. They’ve been given an explanation of how things came to be this way, and this stills their alarm. This explanation covers everything, including the deterioration of the ozone layer, the pollution of the oceans, the destruction of the rain forests, and even human extinction—and it satisfied them. Or perhaps [...]

“We’re destroying the world because we are, in a very literal and deliberate way, at war with it.” – Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

“Even if you weren’t personally captivated by the story, you were a captive all the same, because the people around you made you a captive. You were like an animal being swept along in the middle of a stampede.” – Ishmael by Daniel Quinn