My parents encouraged me in everything I ever wanted to do.

The Mississippi River carries the mud of thirty states and two provinces 2,000 miles south to the delta and deposits 500 million tons of it there every year. The business of the Mississippi, which it will accomplish in time, is methodically to transport all of Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico.

For 25 or 30 years I never had an assignment. These were all stories I wanted to do myself. So they were always about somebody I like, 'cause if I didn't like him, I just didn't do the story. And to have somebody else paying the bills for this tourism, to every corner of every stage, over and over again? Why, who wouldn't want a job like that?

I was on the high school track team, believe it or not, and played baseball, poorly but passionately.

A true Southerner will never say in 2-3 words what can better be said in 10-12.

It's best to leap into something you know you love. You might change your mind later, but that is the privilege of youth.

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.