The middle path makes me wary. . . . But in the middle of my life, I am coming to see the middle path as a walk with wisdom where conversations of complexity can be found, that the middle path is the path of movement. . . . In the right and left worlds, the stories are largely set. . . . We become missionaries for a position . . . practitioners of the missionary position. Variety is lost. Diversity is lost. Creativity is lost in our inability to make love with the world.

She also received the DistinguiTerry Tempest Williamsd Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association and the Wallace Stegner Award given by The Center for the American West. and Melissa A. In 2006 Williams received the Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society their highest honor given to an American citizen.

Williams’ writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of her native Utah and its Mormon culture. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction. For other people of the same name see Terry Williams.