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David Quammen Quotes

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David Quammen is an American writer known for his in-depth exploration of natural history. His works often involve biology, ecology, and the relationship between humans and nature. Born on February 24, 1948, Quammen's writing career spans multiple genres, including scientific writing, travel literature, and journalism.

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Famous David Quammen Quotes

“As I started to read nonfiction in the mid '70s, I discovered, holy cow, there was a lot of imaginative nonfiction. Not the kind where people use composite characters and invented quotes. I hate that kind of nonfiction. But imaginative in the sense that good writing and unexpected structure and vivid reporting could be combined with presenting facts.”

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Author:David Quammen

“Wallace's sales agent, back in London, heard mutterings from some naturalists that young Mr. Wallace ought to quit theorizing and stick to gathering facts. Besides expressing their condescension toward him in particular, that criticism also reflected a common attitude that fact-gathering, not theory, was the proper business of all naturalists.”

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Book:The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions

Source: The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions

“[Theory is] an explanation that has been confirmed to such a degree, by observation and experiment, that knowledgeable experts accept it as fact. That's what scientists mean when they talk about a theory: not a dreamy and unreliable speculation, but an explanatory statement that fits the evidence. They embrace such an explanation confidently but provisionally - taking it as their best available view of reality, at least unil some severely conflicting data or some better explanation might come along.”