“It is perfectly understandable, in a world where the media shout in the same vulgar way about genocides and sexual scandals, to think that silence is the ultimate form of respect for the victims. But the danger is that this honest search for decency, paradoxically in the same way as the screaming media headlines, will end up obscuring the tragedies, turning them into chaotic convulsions in the primeval mud.”

“And this author thinks that understanding why they died is the best and most fitting memorial we can raise for the victims. Letting their deaths go unrecorded, or distorted by propaganda, or misunderstood through simplified clichés, would in fact bring the last touch to the killers' work in completing the victims' dehumanisation. Man is largely a social construct and to deny a man the social meaning of his death is to kill him twice, first in the flesh, then in the spirit.”

“Even if only one person’s respect for animals increases, then writing Talon would have been worthwhile.”

“Everest attempt at sixty-two, three weeks after undergoing surgery for kidney cancer, marathon des Sables six months after it was amputated fingers and toes, be measured by the diagonal of Fools four weeks after ablation of a metastasis to the lung, is this possible? Cancer does not stop your life, giving up your dreams or your goals, it is simply a parameter to manage, no more, no less than all the other parameters of life.How to ensure that the disease becomes transparent to you and your entourage, almost insignificant in terms of trip you want to accomplish? This is precisely the question that Gerard Bourrat tries to answer in this book. To make a sports performance, to live with her cancer, to live well with amputations, the path is always the same: a goal, the joy of effort, perseverance and faith.This book does not commit you to climb Everest, to run under a blazing sun, walking thousands of miles, it invites you to conquer your own Everest.”

“Bad is that often wildlife trafficking is described as a “victimless” crime. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many of the trafficked items come from murdered animals; Rhinoceros Horn, Ivory and Tiger skins; and hundreds of thousands of birds and animals die in transit in the most horrible circumstances imaginable. Just because they cannot communicate with us does not mean they are not victims. They feel, fear and die, just like humans.”

“A lot of the names in Talon reference other people or events. For example Amelia, the giant Eagle, was a “tip of my hat” to the extraordinary aviator Amelia Earhart. Both love(d) to fly!”

“Qui peut le plus peut le moins.”