I had this great urge... I had it the day I was born. Some may call it destiny. My parents and friends called it dismaying.

The extraordinary gentleness of the adult male with his young dispels all the King Kong mythology.

Active conservation [of gorillas] involves simply going out into the forest, on foot, day after day after day, attempting to capture poachers, killing-regretfully-poacher dogs, which spread rabies within the park, and cutting down traps.

I feel more comfortable with gorillas than people. I can anticipate what a gorilla's going to do, and they're purely motivated.

There are times when one cannot accept facts for fear of shattering one's being. As I listened to Ian's news, all of Digit's life, since my first meeting with him as a playful little ball of black fluff ten years earlier, passed through my mind. From that moment on, I came to live within an insulated part of myself.

I have no friends. The more you learn about the dignity of the gorilla, the more you want to avoid people.

When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.

It was their individuality combined with the shyness of their behavior that remained the most captivating impression of this first encounter with the greatest of the great apes.