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.

I didn't like the competitiveness of big-time journalism.

I much preferred the peaceful life on the road, where I didn't have to ask embarrassing questions and do all the things real reporters have to do.

There is melancholy in the wind and sorrow in the grass

I recognize that I had a good deal of good luck in my life. I came along at a time when it was pretty easy to get a job in journalism. I went to work at CBS News when I was about 22, and within a year or so was reporting on the air.

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

I think all those people I did stories about measured their own success by the joy their work was giving them.