Stories are like a river that flows - you dip a bucket in it

When he sat alone in the darkness and cried and was done, all done with it, nothing had changed. His leg still hurt, it was still dark, he was still alone and the self-pity had accomplished nothing.

We make a mistake in thinking we own pets - the animals open their lives up and make us a part of them.

And the last thought he had that morning as he closed his eyes was: I hope the tornado hit the moose.

Initially, he worried that he might be going crazy. But then he decided if you felt you were crazy you weren't really crazy because he had heard somewhere that crazy people didn't know they were insane.

I am happiest in the brush and by myself - whether that's the woods of northern Minnesota or the wilds of Alaska behind a dogteam, picking through the foothills of the mountains by my ranch in New Mexico on horseback, or on the ship of my sailboat on the Pacific - so I guess it made sense to me that both Brian and Samuel would find their challenges and adventures, if that's what you call them, in the woods.

Do what you can as you can. Trouble, problems, will come no matter what you do , and you must respond as they come.