The Overstory Quotes

“The stories are old and fluid, as old as humankind. They’re somehow familiar, as if she were born knowing them.”

“Property and mastery: nothing else counts. Earth will be monetized until all trees grow in straight lines, three people own all seven continents, and every living organism is bred to be slaughtered.”

“She remembers the Buddha’s words: A tree is a wondrous thing that shelters, feeds, and protects all living things. It even offers shade to the axmen who destroy it. And with those words, she has her book’s end.”

“But this is America, where men and trees take the most surprising outings.”

“You and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways.”

“Remember? People aren’t the apex species they think they are. Other creatures—bigger, smaller, slower, faster, older, younger, more powerful—call the shots, make the air, and eat sunlight. Without them, nothing.”

“This. What we have been given. What we must earn. This will never end.”

“She’s sure, on no evidence whatsoever, that trees are social creatures. It’s obvious to her: motionless things that grow in mass mixed communities must have evolved ways to synchronize with one another.”

“But he has made her happy in the only place where people really live, the few-second-wide window of Now.”

“If memories change the pathways of the brain, then the trail must still be there. It’s just a matter of waiting for the wild things to emerge out of the understory.”