You know, most reporters can't go back to the towns they wrote stories about. I never wrote that kind of story.

The storytelling tradition that you bring from the South, I don't know where it arose, but it's still there. You can't go to the feed store, or the country courthouse without running into storytellers.

Rivers run through our history and folklore, and link us as a people.... We are a nation rich in rivers.

It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.

What I learned on the road. Above all else - to love my native land.

I started out thinking of America as highways and state lines. As I got to know it better, I began to think of it as rivers.

I gained a great appreciation for what I would call the collective achievement of the country. I began thinking of America as a much more just and humane place than I would have thought if I'd been covering the civil rights struggle.