I can't say that I've changed anybody's life, ever, and that's the real work of the world, if you want a better society.

Just by luck, I picked good heroes to worship.

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 made friends with a lot of those who could have criticized me in print and who didn't, who praised me instead.

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.

What you need for breakfast, they say in East Tennessee, is a jug of good corn liquor, a thick steak and a hound dog. Then you feed the steak to the dog.

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.