You write not for children but for yourself. And if by good fortune children enjoy what you enjoy, why then you are a writer of children's books.

Fishing is not like billiards, in which it is possible to attain a disgusting perfection.

...next to the pleasure of reading a favourite fishing book comes that of persuading a friend to read it too.

You write not for children but for yourself. And if by good fortune children enjoy what you enjoy, why then you are a writer of children's books.

The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place.

I fished a little while ago with a man, not in his first youth, who had wasted the flower of his life on business and golf and gardening and motoring and marriage, and had in this way postponed his initiation (to fly fishing) far too long.

Good fishermen know that in talking about fishing, nothing is more interesting than the truth.