The bent of personality that makes for a natural history writer comes from a need to write, a love of landscape, insatiable curiosity about the details of life in that landscape, a dedication to accuracy in understanding the details, devotion to language and image rooted in imagination rather than science, and a desire to ponder one's relationship to the earth — qualities that could come together in anyone, but surely are rooted in childhood.
— Gary Paul Nabhan, Super, Natural Christians by Sallie McFague