I think the feature reporter often walks a very thin line between a truly human story and one that slops over into mushiness or sentimentality.

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.

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

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.

Kids are always asked, What are you going to be when you grow up? I needed an answer. So instead of saying, a fireman, or a policeman, I said, a reporter.

Now that I look back on it, having retired from being a reporter, it was kind of romantic. It was a wonderful way to live one's life, just as I imagined it would be when I was 6 or 7.

There is melancholy in the wind and sorrow in the grass