Even though Paul must have had three or four fish by now, I took my time walking down the trail, trying with each step to leave the world behind. Som… - Norman Maclean

Many of us would probably be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect

Something within fishermen tries to make fishing into a world perfect and apart — I don't know what it is or where, because sometimes it is in my arms and sometimes in my throat and sometimes nowhere in particular except somewhere deep. Many of us probably would be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect.

Many of us probably would be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect.

Sometimes all you have left to win with is the knowledge of why you're taking the beating and the realization that nobody else is going to save you from it.

Eventually the watcher joined the river, and there was only one of us. I believe it was the river.

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