Old houses, I thought, do not belong to people ever, not really, people belong to them.

Happiness is a thing of now.

the real evidence of growing older is that things level off in importance ... Days are no longer jagged peaks to climb; time is a meadow, and we move over it with level steps.

The curious thing about fishing is you never want to go home. If you catch something, you can't stop. If you don't catch anything, you hate to leave in case something might bite.

After all, catching something is purely a by-product of our fishing. It is the act of fishing that wipes away all grief, lightens all worry, dissolves fear and anxiety.

the tentacles of today reach out like an octopus to swallow yesterday.

Father was the most unreconciled taxpayer I ever knew.