Quotes by Peter Benchley

• If man doesn't learn to treat the oceans and the rain forest with respect, man will become extinct.
• Without the oceans there would be no life on Earth.
• Twenty-five years ago nobody knew much about white sharks.
• Reputations rise and fall almost as regularly as the tides.
• Writing is sweat and drudgery most of the time. And you have to love it in order to endure the solitude and the discipline.
• I've never been hurt by a sea creature, except for jellyfish and sea urchins.
• I'm a babe in the woods when it comes to the Internet.
• I read very widely, both non-fiction and fiction, so I don't think there's a single writer who influences me.
• I guess I'm a hopeful optimist, because to be a pessimist is to be suicidal.
• I don't believe in blaming inanimate objects for anything.
• I dive as much as I can.
• I believe implicitly that every young man in the world is fascinated with either sharks or dinosaurs.
• Since writing JAWS, I've been lucky enough to do close to forty television shows about wildlife in the oceans, and yes, I have been attacked by sea creatures once in a while.