"I lived with them in my studio in New York. And of course if I were doing that book today or even ten years, fifteen years later, I would have gone to where the wild ducks were and where I could study them - I would have gone to the country somewhere"
About this Quote
The phrasing does a lot of sly work. "Of course" carries a gentle, self-mocking inevitability, as if the younger McCloskey’s solution now seems both absurd and perfectly reasonable. Then comes the pivot: if he were doing it "today" (or even a decade earlier), he’d chase the ducks to their habitat. That backward glance isn’t just about better research; it’s an admission of changing expectations. Over the late 20th century, audiences and publishers increasingly rewarded documentary realism, location-based observation, and a kind of ecological conscientiousness. The subtext is that craft has become professionalized: what once counted as resourceful now reads like a shortcut.
It also reflects an urban American truth. Many iconic nature stories were produced from city apartments, mediated through pets, zoos, and imagination. McCloskey’s candor reveals how "nature" in popular culture is often a constructed set, assembled where artists actually live. His regret isn’t guilt so much as a recognition that the relationship between art and authenticity keeps shifting, and the work gets reinterpreted along with it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Nature |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
McCloskey, Robert. (2026, January 15). I lived with them in my studio in New York. And of course if I were doing that book today or even ten years, fifteen years later, I would have gone to where the wild ducks were and where I could study them - I would have gone to the country somewhere. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-lived-with-them-in-my-studio-in-new-york-and-of-161436/
Chicago Style
McCloskey, Robert. "I lived with them in my studio in New York. And of course if I were doing that book today or even ten years, fifteen years later, I would have gone to where the wild ducks were and where I could study them - I would have gone to the country somewhere." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-lived-with-them-in-my-studio-in-new-york-and-of-161436/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I lived with them in my studio in New York. And of course if I were doing that book today or even ten years, fifteen years later, I would have gone to where the wild ducks were and where I could study them - I would have gone to the country somewhere." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-lived-with-them-in-my-studio-in-new-york-and-of-161436/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.
