When exhausted and feeling sorry for yourself, at least…

At the time I did not know that stories of life are often more like rivers than books.

— Norman Maclean

“In this story of the outside world and the inside world with a fire between, the outside world of little screwups recedes now for…

— Norman Maclean

“I hope there are others also who don't mind trees.”

— Norman Maclean

Probably most catastrophes end this way without an ending, the dead not even knowing how they died...,those who loved them forever questioning "this unnecessary…

— Norman Maclean

If our father had had his way, nobody who did not know how to fish would be allowed to disgrace a fish by catching…

— Norman Maclean

I knew that, when needed, mountains would move for me.

— Norman Maclean

“I sat there and forgot and forgot, until what remained was the river that went by and I who watched... Eventually the watcher joined…

— Norman Maclean

It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us.

— Norman Maclean

Unless we are willing to escape into sentimentality or fantasy, often the best we can do with catastrophes, even our own, is to find…

— Norman Maclean

As for my father, I never knew whether he believed God was a mathematician but he certainly believed God could count and that only…

— Norman Maclean

At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.

— Norman Maclean

“On the Big Blackfoot River above the mouth of Belmont Creek the banks are fringed by large Ponderosa pines. In the slanting sun of…

— Norman Maclean

Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course I usually fish the big waters alone,…

— Norman Maclean

“...it is not fly fishing if you are not looking for answers to questions.”

— Norman Maclean

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over…

— Norman Maclean