Take a moment from time to time to remember that you are alive. I know this sounds a trifle obvious, but it is amazing how little time we take to remark upon this singular and gratifying fact. By the most astounding stroke of luck an infinitesimal portion of all the matter in the universe came together to create you and for the tiniest moment in the great span of eternity you have the incomparable privilege to exist.

Perhaps it's my natural pessimism, but it seems that an awfully large part of travel these days is to see things while you still can.

When you consider it from a human perspective, and clearly it would be difficult for us to do otherwise, life is an odd thing. It couldn't wait to get going, but then, having gotten going, it seemed in very little hurry to move on.

I was heading to Nebraska. Now there's a sentence you don't want to say too often if you can possibly help it.

I'm not a natural story-teller. Put a keyboard in front of me and I'm fine, but stand me up in front of an audience and I'm actually quite shy and reserved.

There are only three things that can kill a farmer: lightning, rolling over in a tractor, and old age.

When you tell an Iowan a joke, you can see a kind of race going on between his brain and his expression.