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

Desert rains are usually so definitely demarked that the story of the man who washed his hands in the edge of an Arizona thunder shower without wetting his cuffs seems almost credible. – Administration in the State of Arizona, U.S. public relief program, 1935-1943

Land of extremes. Land of contrasts. Land of surprises. Land of contradictions…. That is Arizona. – Federal Writers Project, Arizona: The Grand Canyon State, 1956