Jon Katz

Jon Katz – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Jon Katz — Discover the life and evolving career of American journalist, author, photographer, and animal-advocate (born August 8, 1947). Explore his writings, philosophy, and memorable quotes about animals and life.

Introduction

Jon Katz (born August 8, 1947) is an American journalist, author, and photographer whose career has traversed technology, media criticism, fiction, and a passionate focus on human–animal relationships. He first made a name writing about geek culture and media, and later pivoted to life on a farm, documenting his bond with dogs, livestock, and rural life. His voice is both introspective and direct, often speaking to the emotional core of how we relate to other creatures, ourselves, and technology. In this article, we’ll cover the “life and career of Jon Katz,” gather “Jon Katz quotes,” and examine his legacy and lessons.

Early Life and Family

Jon Katz was born on August 8, 1947, in Providence, Rhode Island. he is the son of George and Eve Katz.

Details about his early childhood are not widely publicized. What is known is that Katz built a successful career in journalism and writing before making a quieter, more personal turn in midlife toward farm life, photography, and deeper reflections on animals and what it means to live more simply.

Education & Early Career

Jon Katz began his professional life in journalism. He worked as a reporter for well-established newspapers including The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post. Rolling Stone, New York, Wired, GQ, and The New York Times.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he gravitated toward online media. He was a contributor to HotWired (the digital arm of Wired) and later wrote for Slashdot, focusing on technology, culture, and the evolution of geek subculture. Slate, where many of his recent essays focus on animals and rural life.

He also wrote fiction, particularly a mystery series about a character named Kit DeLeeuw, a private investigator formerly from Wall Street, set in New Jersey.

Turning Point: The Animals & the Farm

A major turning point in Katz’s life and work was his decision to take in a difficult Border Collie (named Devon) and move to rural upstate New York, buying a farm (reportedly around 110 acres with barns and sheep). That shift prompted Katz to write deeply about animals, their emotional lives (as he perceives them), and the responsibilities of humans in relation to them.

In this period, he published a number of works centered on dogs and farm life, such as:

• A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me

• The Dogs of Bedlam Farm: An Adventure with Sixteen Sheep, Three Dogs, Two Donkeys and Me

• Katz on Dogs: A Commonsense Guide to Training and Living with Dogs

• Soul of a Dog: Reflections on the Spirits of the Animals at Bedlam Farm

• Listening to Dogs: How to Be Your Own Training Guru

• Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion

These books mix memoir, practical advice, reflection, and storytelling.

Katz also embraced photography in his later years, often using his own photographs (animals, landscapes, farm life) to illustrate his essays and books.

Themes, Style & Influence

Bridging Technology & Humanity

Because Katz began in technology and media critique, his perspective often bridges the digital world and the natural world. He explores how modern life — screens, social media, disconnection — contrasts with the more visceral, grounded relationships we can have with animals.

Voice of Vulnerability & Responsibility

Katz writes candidly about loss, grief, and the moral obligations we carry toward creatures in our care. He acknowledges that loving animals inevitably involves loss, and that part of the human-animal bond is learning how to let go with dignity and compassion.

Rejecting Anthropomorphism

One recurring motif is Katz’s resistance to overly anthropomorphizing animals. He often warns against projecting human emotions, motives, and moral judgments onto animals, arguing that we misunderstand or overcomplicate what it means to communicate and care.

Rural Life & Simplicity

His later life is likewise a meditation on simpler living, the rhythms of a farm, and how disconnection (from city, from media) can open space for deeper observation and emotional clarity.

Famous Quotes by Jon Katz

Below are selected quotes that illuminate his understanding of animals, life, and the human condition:

• “Animals have come to mean so much in our lives. … What’s one thing that we have in our lives that we can depend on? A dog or a cat loving us unconditionally, every day, very faithfully.”

• “If you’re going to love animals and have a life with them, the odds are you’re going to lose them. It’s helpful when you get a dog to accept the fact that this dog is not going to be with you your whole life.”

• “My goats are not contemplative, accepting, or introspective. They are the Greek chorus of my farm, sometimes of my life. They watch me closely and remind me that I am foolish.”

• “I think of animals more as spirits that come and go. They enter our lives at a particular time and they leave at a particular time. … It’s about loving this creature and letting this creature love you.”

• “The immature conscience is not its own master. It simply parrots the decisions of others. … It does not make judgments of its own; it merely conforms to the judgments of others.”

• “Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together. Powerful stuff.”

• “It is difficult to see ourselves as we are. Sometimes we are fortunate enough to have good friends … who will do us the good service of telling us the truth about ourselves.”

These quotes speak less of sensationalism and more of resonance — of facing fragility, responsibility, memory, and the honest, sometimes painful, beauty in relationships.

Lessons from Jon Katz

1. Love demands courage and acceptance
   Katz teaches that opening one’s heart to animals means risking loss, but it’s a choice of depth over safety.

2. Observe without overshadowing
   He urges readers to resist projecting human narratives onto animals. Let their behavior and presence speak in their own terms.

3. Balance modern life with rootedness
   His shift from media work to farm life suggests that meaning can come from grounding oneself in place, relationship, and rhythms beyond the screen.

4. Speak vulnerably, not grandly
   Katz’s writing is not about sweeping manifestos but honest confessions. That tone makes his insights more persuasive.

5. Adapt and evolve your craft
   Katz’s career shows that one needn’t be fixed in one lane — from journalism, to fiction, to animal memoir and photography — his creative life evolved in response to inner change.

Conclusion

Jon Katz is a unique voice whose arc from journalist to farm writer shows a profound personal transformation. His work reminds us that the greatest stories may originate not in grand ambitions, but in quiet, sustained attentiveness — to animals, to place, and to how we love and lose. His quotes offer gentle but potent guidance on empathy, responsibility, and what it means to live with other beings.