In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.

I come from very common stock, and I've always been uncomfortable with pretension and all the forms it can take, including disingenuous broadcasting.

People feel vulnerable when they travel. Nobody wants to be taken advantage of or talked into something they don't want. Staying at Motel 6 makes you feel smarter. In fact, I think it actually means you are smarter, but I have no hard data to support that.

They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.

That's what the American odyssey is really about: Leaving home. Leaving home and coming home, and trying to understand the difference.

Mine is not a story to tell struggling writers.

Tom Kizzia hasn't just observed and written about Alaska for three-plus decades, he's lived it. 'Pilgrim's Wilderness' is a story that needed to be told by the only man who could tell it.