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I can't do with mountains at close quarters - they are always in the way, and they are so stupid, never moving and never doing anything but obtrude themselves.

When you go to the mountains, you see them and you admire them. In a sense, they give you a challenge, and you try to express that challenge by climbing them.

Mountains terrify me - they just sit about; they are so proud.

Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.

It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

We get letters every day from people wanting more mountains. As many as I paint, they still say, 'Give me more mountains.'

There's intense personal gratification in finding a mountain and becoming inspired by the aesthetics of an unclimbed line on that mountain, especially if that line has been tried by a lot of people who couldn't do it, and you get to set yourself up against the history of it.

The top of one mountain is always the bottom of another.