[My mother and I] had come to West Texas to spend Thanksgiving in the national park where my mother worked as a ranger during the years when I formed my first childhood memories – images of wooded canyons and stone mountains rising up from the earth, the sound of wind whipping across low desert hills, the warmth of the sun beating down upon endless scrublands.”
-- The Author (Narration) (Prologue)

Importance: In this quote from the book's prologue, the author illustrates the significance of two of the more important personal relationships in his life - with his mother (who, as the book reveals, formed and sustained much of his identity) and with nature (which, as the book also reveals, was a sustaining and inspiring source of insight for him).

… there’s something here I can’t look away from. Maybe it’s the desert, maybe it’s the closeness of life and death, maybe it’s the...
-- The Author (narration) (Part 1, Section 1)