Quotations from *Young Men and Fire*, 1 of 2
Norman Maclean
1902-1990 American

In the Gates of the Mountains there have been many blowups. Now there are many rattlesnakes and nothing more fragile than mountain goats, themselves tougher than the mountains they disdain, although at a distance they are white wings of butterflies floating up and down and sideways across the faces of fragments of arches and cliffs, touching but never becoming attached to them.
—Norman Maclean, Young Men and Fire

Yet we should also go on wondering if there is not some shape, form, design as of artistry in this universe we are entering that is composed of catastrophes and missing parts.
—Norman Maclean, Young Men and Fire

His whole flight to the ground takes an average of only a minute. This minute is about the only moment a Smokejumper is ever alone, and it is one of the most lonely moments in his life... Nothing is there except the jumper and his equipment made by the lowest bidder, and he himself has thinned out to the vanishing point of being only decisions once made that he can’t do anything about ever after.
—Norman Maclean, Young Men and Fire

They were young and did not leave much behind them and need someone to remember them.
—Norman Maclean, Young Men and Fire