Burt Shavitz

“Roxanne Quimby wanted money and power, and I was just a pillar on the way to that success.”

“I realized I had it made because you don't have to destroy anything to get honey. You can just use the same things over and over again, put it in a quart canning jar, and you've got $12.”

“There are so many opportunities to see the sun go down in the evening and the sun come up in the morning. The colors change on the trees, on the snow. I'm surrounded by people who are friendly and helpful.”

“No one has ever accused me of being ambitious.”

“If I decide I want to go canoeing, I've got a canoe. If I want to take my dog with me, nobody tells me I can't do it. If I want to go skinny dipping and wash my body, I can take my clothes off.”

“You can only punish your body so long before you're stuck with a horrendous inability to do things you'd previously been able to do.”

“Money is nothing really worth squabbling about. This is what puts people six feet under. You know, I don't need it.”

“A good day is when no one shows up, and you don't have to go anywhere.”

“What do I need it for, millions of dollars? It just sounds like problems with the IRS to me.”

“I had no desire to be an upward-mobile-rising yuppie with a trophy wife, a trophy house, a trophy car. I wasn't looking for any of those things. I already had what I wanted.”

“The magic of living life for me is, and always has been, the magic of living on the land, not in the magic of money.”

“I've got a radio that occasionally I listen to. It's portable. It's got an antenna. I've put a piece of aluminum foil on it that gives me a little bit better reception. And a refrigerator.”

“You've gotta do what you like to do. If you do things you don't like to do, what sense does it make?”

“Land is everything.”

“I'm less interested in the inside of whatever it is I own than on the outside of what it sits on.”

“My life is the land, the dogs, the car, the motorcycle, the pond, the canoe, going to pick up mail. It's just a rural retreat that I enjoy.”

“I've got everything I need: a nice piece of land with hawks and owls and incredible sunsets, and the good will of my neighbors.”