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

I suppose I was a little bit of what would be called today a nerd. I didn't have girlfriends, and really I wasn't a very social boy.

I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a reporter. I don't know where I got the idea that it was a romantic calling.

You can find your way across this country using burger joints the way a navigator uses stars.

Rivers run through our history and folklore, and link us as a people. They nourish and refresh us and provide a home for dazzling varieties of fish and wildlife and trees and plants of every sort. We are a nation rich in rivers.

Often I have been exhausted on trout streams, uncomfortable, wet, cold, briar scarred, sunburned, mosquito bitten, but never, with a fly rod in my hand have I been less than in a place that was less than beautiful.

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