And still I wander, seeking compensation in unforseen encounters and unexpected sights, in sunsets, storms and passing fancies.

When I worked in Los Angeles covering hard news, very often when something important would happen I'd be off in the woods covering something unimportant, which was more interesting to me.

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. 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.

You never heard anybody ask 'Elvis who?'

It is liberalism, whether people like it or not, which has animated all the years of my life. What on Earth did conservatism ever accomplish for our country?

I did stories about unexpected encounters, back roads, small towns and ordinary folk, sometimes doing something a little extraordinary.