But you have to take all of those things, you have to take into consideration the paths, the roadways, how much cloud cover there is, how much foliage cover there is, whether there are streams, all of that comes into play.
In fact, just about all the major natural attractions you find in the West- the Grand Canyon, the Badlands, the Goodlands, the Mediocrelands, the Rocky Mountains and Robert Redford- were caused by erosion.
Every ripple on the ocean, every leaf on every tree, every sand dune in the desert, every power we never see.
Places are extremely important when writing a long story because place shapes a character.
I think of rivers, of tides. Forests and water gushing out. Rain and lightning. Rocks and shadows. All of these are in me.
An architect should live as little in cities as a painter. Send him to our hills, and let him study there what nature understands by a buttress, and what by a dome.
The Vermont mountains stretch extended straight; New Hampshire mountains curl up in a coil.
The parish I live in is a very abrupt, uneven country, full of hills and woods, and therefore full of birds.
But where do they find these lines in nature? I can only see luminous or obscure masses, planes that advance or planes that recede, reliefs or background. My eye never catches lines or details.
Shadows are in reality, when the sun is shining, the most conspicuous thing in a landscape, next to the highest lights.
There is no horizon in Toledo. There are too many trees.
A house isn't really understandable until it settles into the site: until it's built, furnished and lived in for four or five years. The reality is not on paper but in how a building sits on the land - how it relates to trees, to slopes, to water, to gardens.
In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.
Look for the valleys, the green places, and fly through them. There will always be a way through.
If you are in the country, you should notice landmarks - that is, objects which help you to find your way or prevent you getting lost, such as distant hills, church towers, and nearer objects, such as peculiar buildings, trees, gates, rocks, etc.
If the fairest features of the landscape are to be named after men, let them be the noblest and worthiest men alone.
I'm attempting to broaden my novels' scope through landscape and weather, leaves falling off trees, overnight storms, timeless elements which, irrespective of human endeavour, have always been there and, as long as there is life and snow, will always be there.
The traces of upheavals become more impressive when one moves a little higher, when one gets even closer to the foot of the great mountain ranges. There are still plenty of shell layers. We notice them, even thicker and more solid ones.
O land and soil, red soil and sweet-gum tree, So scant of grass, so profligate of pines
