Testimonials – by people whose own lives and works were influenced by the work of Robert Pirsig. (Anyone is invited to submit a testimonial. Don’t forget to tell us who you are and we’ll be happy to link to your work where appropriate.)
JOHN HINDLE – WRITER
“I first read ZMM as a junior in high school. I happened to be browsing in the school library and saw the title which got me interested. I had been reading Carl Sagan which inspired my interest in science but ZMM took me in a new direction and inspired my interest in philosophy. I read all of Plato’s dialogues that year. Then began my interest in Eastern spirituality, inspired by Bob’s, and I began reading Buddhist literature. I also started doing my own creative writing inspired by the gorgeous descriptions of the west by Bob. After I graduated high school I became a student at our state university where I was laterally drifting as Bob put it. I was skipping classes and reading Chinese poetry such as the Tao. From there I enrolled in Loyola University while living with my parents in New Orleans where I took a class in Zen meditation. Having been enchanted by Bob’s descriptions of the West I moved to Denver where I continued doing Zen meditation while living in the YMCA and working at an insurance company. But I was a recluse back then. So eventually, by my choice, I went to a country club mental hospital where I read ZMM twice while a patient and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. While living with my grandparents, whom I grew up with until high school, to recover I wrote a short story that won 1st prize and was published in the contest at the college I attended there. This story was inspired both by Thoreau’s “Walden” and the western scenes of ZMM. Then I read “Lila”. This inspired my interest in anthropology. I went on to get a degree in creative writing and then anthropology graduating with departmental honors in anthropology. My love of the West, inspired by Bob, led me to road trips to the New Mexico and the Grand Canyon. Later I used excerpts from Lila in a class I taught for several years to mentally ill people. Both books shaped my fascination with Eastern and western philosophy and later Native American and primitive cultures. I attribute my academic and writing success to ZMM. I have self published 24 books of fiction and poetry in the last twenty years and ZMM gave me my start in writing.”
LOUISA SMITH – EPIC BOOK SOCIETY, London, UK
“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig is a truly captivating masterpiece that’s still as prevalent today as it was when it was written. Pirsig’s writing style, although reads like fiction, effortlessly transports the reader on a thought-provoking journey of self-discovery and introspection. Once you start reading, you’ll never be the same again. This is the only philosophical book you’ll ever need, nor want to read.”
Dr PRANAY SANKLECHA – University of Graz, Austria – 50 YEARS OF ZMM
“The world is troubled and times are tough. We live in a time of deep uncertainty. What is the world going to look like in 10 years? We are living at an inflection point in human history. Everything is in play, even such fundamental questions as the future of the human world and what it means to be human at all. In such times, what we need more than anything else is wisdom. Robert Pirsig was a true philosopher. His book is a serious, sustained and passionate ‘inquiry into values’. He asks: what is really valuable? What truly matters? His work, is essential reading for anyone searching for wisdom in our times.”
Prof ANNA MARIE ROOS –History of Science, Lincoln University, UK
“I used ZMM concerning Pirsig’s diagnosis of the mechanical problems with his motorcycle to teach scientific induction to my university students. I put this exercise on the internet, which lead Henry Gurr to contact me. It is wonderful that there will be an anniversary celebration of Pirsig’s work, exhibit and reissue of ZMM so new generations of students will benefit from it.”
NICK SUMMERHAYES – Ops & Support Specialist, Headway Systems, NZ
“I describe myself as an IT Luddite living in Christchurch, New Zealand. I first read ZMM when I was eighteen years old, and focussed on the motorcycle trip and glossed over the philosophy. Since then, I must have read it another twenty times and Lila ten times, with my priorities reversed.Science and technology are wonderful, but, alone, they are not equipped to save us and the planet. It’s imperative that they are guided by Quality, values, morals. Robert Pirsig revealed that not only is value within everything, it is the source of all things. Value needs to supplant truth in our philosophy, assuming we have a (western) philosophy. We don’t need to ask if Einstein’s gravity is more true than Newton’s gravity, but which has the most value in a given application. From an early age, I’ve wondered how the Universe can exist, or not exist. I think it’s a curse of my western, scientific, three dimensional, upbringing. Stumbling along the uneven road of logic, I would reach a point as I pondered the objects’ existence, that hit me as a panic attack and struck me as insanity, and do my best to stop thinking about it.
I wonder if Pirsig’s object-less value being the source of the objects and all things, can take that fear of insanity away.”
WES FLEMING, USA
“A high school teacher learned I was interested in motorcycles and suggested I read ZMM. It took me a few years to get around to it, but when I did I was … confused, at best. I really had no idea what I was reading beyond the bare openings of a travelogue featuring my favorite brand at the time, Honda, and some twitchy dude on a BMW.I tried ZMM again in my early 30s – now with over a decade of riding experience under my belt. I no longer rode Hondas, but instead had moved on to BMWs and learned how to work on them. I still didn’t understand the book, but more pieces of it made sense. In my 40s, I once again set out to decipher ZMM and … well, failed much less miserably that time. I feel like I got about 80% of it this time around, and perhaps it was because of my love of working on my BMW motorcycles and underlying desire to once again ride a tiny Honda and feel those feelings.
Now I’m in my mid-50s and preparing to read the latest edition of ZMM, the one with Crawford’s introduction. *His* book, I understood right away, and I’m hoping I’ll finally have my mind opened by ZMM the way I’ve heard so many claim to have had their mind opened by it. The reality is, I think a lot of folks struggled with it just like I did over the years, but didn’t want anybody to know they didn’t get it, so they just muddled through. I’m happy to say I didn’t understand it at all, then gradually gathered more insights as I grew in experience with each re-reading.
I can hardly wait for the first reading in my 60s.”
IAN GLENDINNING – Systems Thinker & Philosophy Researcher, Cleveland, UK
“I came to Pirsig’s work late in life, after 25 years as an industrial systems engineer. The more we modelled business systems – human organisation and asset information – using objects and logical relations in computer systems, the greater my nagging doubts that we were missing something. I was already researching what that was, when I stumbled across the suggestion by a Nobel prize-winning physicist there was something about ‘Eastern’ thought that was more fundamental than even physics(!) That shock triggered a vague memory – what was the name of that book about Zen and Engineering from previously unread reading lists?This techy geek had his mind expanded – into an unused half-a-brain – in discovering an alternative world of wisdom in two works of literary – fictional / rhetorical – narrative, of the kind I would never previously have read. Prompted by the critical comparisons with Dostoevsky and Melville – I have for the subsequent 25 years become a “born again” reader of any & all philosophical literature as well as philosophy / psychology / neuro-science texts generally.
To this day the evolutionary framework of Pirsig’s four-layer Metaphysics of Quality, and the primacy of the ‘Quality’ of immediate engagement in, and (moral) attention to, the world have informed the worldview I have learned from every other thought since. Pirsig was my introduction to that world.
In a world seemingly gone mad, and incapable of getting to grips with ever more existential crises besetting humanity and the planet, Pirsig can introduce more of us, more urgently than ever, to where wisdom lies.”
ARTUN TURAN – Finance Manager, Istanbul, Turkey
“I knew the book as we had a copy at my childhood home; a close friend of my father gifted him a copy of ZMM with a note in front: ‘You have to do the maintenance work after a certain age.’ The title was hard to forget, but I did not read it for years, not until after high school when I saw a copy at a second-hand bookstore and got my own copy.During the first round of reading, I thought the Classical-Romantic split as a way to look at social conflicts was brilliant; it immediately influenced how I approached disagreements in my own life.
I was tempted to look for more and read it a second time, then noticed that the descriptions in the travelogue were intentionally aligned with that day’s Chautauqua – looking back, I think this set me on a quest to look closely at what this mystery writer was trying to convey as he carefully built up every page. Before I managed to get a PDF copy years later, I had re-read it many times, naming chapters and extracting the part beyond the travelogue.
Reading ‘Lila’ set me on a quest to trace Bob’s references, partly to satisfy the thirst to really know if what he was saying was true – as what I read claimed to connect a post-modern converging world understanding well beyond where the Western philosophical canon is dated – but more so, I would be able to point out external references to support his corrections to the dead thinking that is holding back the possibility of settling so many conflicts. I started with the referenced texts, and before long, I found myself navigating the most interesting writing, all by good men trying to better the world.
Bob’s writing certainly changed the course of my life – a fusion reactor powering an endless quest for Quality – to try & fail & try again; with care, everything gets better, and this quest tends to spread out and make a real difference.”
SILVIO FUNTOWICZ – University of Bergen, Norway
“The book that changed my life: Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. Pirsig’s book was our main source of inspiration on Quality in the development of Post-Normal Science. Complemented by William Edwards Deming ‘participatory’ practice of quality control. The study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself. Working on a motorcycle, working well, caring, is to become part of a process, to achieve an inner peace of mind. The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon.”
MICHAEL LEWIS – Author, USA
“The book that changed my life was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. I read it right before my final department exams (art history) in my senior year in college and was so smitten that I attempted to imitate its style on my exam answers, with predictable results. This book might be the reason I’m not an art historian.”
JOHN CHORNE – Financial Planner, Minneapolis, MN, USA
“I don’t remember the first year I read Robert Pirsig’s Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It was in my early 20s, more than 30 years from when I am writing this. The impact it had on me was profound and that continues to be true to this day. Pirsig’s journey and inquiry into Quality is timeless and perhaps more urgent today than ever. His philosophy can be a guide back to what is important (Quality / Values / Goodness) and, all too often, lacking in our lives.”
PETER FISHER – Environmental Health and IT Support (retired)
“My original paperback copy of ZAMM is held together with tape, reminiscent of Bob’s riding gloves. I have a hardback copy I happened upon on my way to a motorcycle speed hill climb event I was competing in. At a second hand book fair in a town I stopped at. For some reason I walked in, wandered up to a stall at random and there was that familiar cover just staring me in the face.This book also sent me in search of the ‘Watercourse Way’ and led me to read the works of Alan Watts. So when Lila was published I was straight down to a bookshop to purchase a copy. Pirsig’s work certainly readjusted my view of the world – and the universe. I’m sure it made me a better motorcycle mechanic even if not a ‘better’ person. ‘Gumptionology 101’ should be read by anyone working on machines or involved in soft systems.
I’m past my three quarter century now and my favourite Moto Morini is only a few years older than ZAMM. I don’t think I’ll ever sell it. No reason to, really. They’re not like cars, with a body that rusts out in a few years. Keep them tuned and overhauled and they’ll last as long as you do. Probably longer. Quality. It’s carried us so far without trouble. We are growing old together, perhaps not gracefully, but I’m sure it will see me out.”
TOMRIS AKIN – Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, (Abstract in English)
“I read the book in 1997 as a sophomore in the Department of Architecture. The lack of definition of what was “good,” “liked,” and what was not in the architecture education, which I started with great enthusiasm, made me think of dropping out of school. Pirsig’s book and the subsequent reading marathon it guided helped me create my evaluation system. Afterward, I wrote my master’s thesis on Pirsig’s Quality Thought and Architecture. I am currently teaching at a university and use the evaluation approach triggered by the book.”
KHOO HOCK AUN – Director & ASEAN Green Chamber of Commerce, KL Malaysia
“Robert Pirsig distilled the essence of Western Philosophy and by extension Western Civilization to its core and juxtaposed it brilliantly with Eastern Philosophy, a feat not easily achieved by most Western oriented writers, no matter how steeped their knowledge of the East might be. Neither was there a similar treatment of Western philosophy by Eastern writers, as there was not seen a need to do so. The idea of Quality as a pre-reductionist state seemed to symbolise the peak of Western intellectual pursuit and eventually led to the development of the MOQ in Lila.Both books had a profound effect on my understanding and outlook of Western civilization and the root cause of the ills that plague it especially so in this day and age. When I turned the last page and closed the cover of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance on that day in 1978, I felt surrounded by an all-encompassing glow of illumination, the kind that comes with achieving a once in a lifetime fundamental understanding of the world around me.
The insights from both books are both alive and well with me today decades later and I am grateful for having been introduced to them, met him in person in the July of 2005 and will cherish always the autographed copies of both his books.”
DAVID HARDING – Writer & blogger in Australia
“Few things have had a greater impact on my life than Pirsig’s work. Considering the meaning of life as a teenager and considering the worst with few answers as a youthful twenty year old. An encounter with an old teacher and the recommendation of Pirsig has profoundly impacted my life ever since.His work including his greatest creation – the Metaphysics of Quality – still shapes every day and moment of my time here and will likely continue to for its remainder. I remain forever indebted and profoundly grateful and humble in front of his remarkably under-appreciated wisdom.”
DAVID PIERCE – Mathematics at MSGS University, Istanbul. Philosophy Blogger.
My uncle rode motorcycles, and he used to talk about teaching me to ride. Later he dropped the idea; he must have figured that his sister would never forgive him if something even happened to her son. I did go on to take bicycle trips across the Appalachian Mountains.My Uncle Bill had read ZAMM when it came out; I read it a few years later, when I saw it in my high-school library and was captivated by the opening paragraph. I seem not to have been the only person who went on to attend St John’s College (Annapolis and Santa Fe) because of Pirsig’s novel. We wanted to question the origins of our culture.
I became a mathematician. The question that bothered Pirsig as an English teacher is one that hope my own students will learn not to ask: “Is this what you want?” I want from them something they have already shown to *themselves* to be true. During the Pandemic, I created a template for exercises whose solution, if correct, would be obviously and satisfyingly so.
I’m not sure about the battle that Pirsig describes in ZAMM (ch. 29): “Truth won, the Good lost, and that is why today we have so little difficulty accepting the reality of truth and so much difficulty accepting the reality of Quality.” In my published account of how I aimed to coax students into learning their own power to learn the truth, I was pleased to be able to quote Pirsig.”
JOHN EMMONS – Producer
My introduction to Mr. Pirsig’s work came very early in my stunted adulthood. I used a quote from ZMM “what is good and what is not good…need we ask anyone of these things Phaedrus?” in a college class and received a personal note from the philosophy professor that said my original thoughts were off the mark but that she appreciated the quote…I hope got that quote right.He also taught me about the term gumption, I’ve unsuccessfully attempted to obtain it ever since I first read ZMM. Perhaps the search truly is the destination after all.I can clearly remember thinking that it must have taken a great deal of courage and maybe even more gumption to tell the world that the writer suffered from mental illness and to see that illness manifest itself in his own child. I cried when I read about the death of Chris Pirsig and I cried again when I read that Pirsig had died. I still have many questions that I would have liked to have asked him. Fair winds and clear sailing Mr. Pirsig.“
KELVIN RUSSELL – Motorcyclist
I read ZMM in the 1980s about 6 times, each time being able to follow the metaphysical argument a bit deeper. In the 1990 reading I felt I’d understood the book cover to cover. I’ve since read around it: H. D. F. Kitto’s “The Greeks”, the Guidebook by DiSanto and Steele, Mark Richardson’s Zen and Now, Lila, Henry James’ “The turn of the screw”, and others.It has since the 1980s informed both my understanding of the relationship between art and science and my understanding of motorcycle maintenance. I ride and maintain a 1983 R65LS BMW, similar to the R60/2 ridden by John Sutherland.
In another arc I’ve regarded the writings of William James, Abraham Maslow and Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi as a continuum, their descriptions of, respectively, mystical experiences, peak experiences and flow being variants of the same idea, and that idea being a way to relate science and religion.
I regard Pirsig also to have reconciled science and religion. I’m re-reading ZMM to see how close his descriptions of Dynamic Quality are to Flow.
Do you have a testimonial to share? Let us know via the contact form. (As well as telling us how your life has been affected by Pirsig’s work, don’t forget to tell us who you are, where you are and, if relevant, a link to your own work.)
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