Welcome to Arizona, where summer spends the winter — and hell spends the summer. – Popular saying, modified from a booster slogan in the 1930s

You cannot blame the Sahara alone for the troubles. But you should also not see the desert simply as some faraway place of little rain. There are many forms of thirst. – William Langewiesche, Sahara Unveiled: A Journey Across the Desert

In the desert, I had discovered the West of my imagination, my childhood canyon infinitely magnified. I went there for inspiration and insight. – Julene Bair, The Ogallala Road: A Memoir of Love and Reckoning, 2014

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery