Quotes from Norman Maclean

For a scientist, this is a good way to live and die, maybe the ideal way for any of us - excitedly finding we were wrong and excitedly waiting for tomorrow to come so we can start over.

All good things come by grace, and grace comes by art, and art does not come easy.

My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him all good things-trout as well as eternal salvation-come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy.

In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.

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

One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful even if it is only a floating ash.

...life every now and then becomes literature...as if life had been made and not happened.

At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear. It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us. You can love completely without complete understanding.

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

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.

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

We can love completely what we cannot completely understand.

... you can love completely without complete understanding.""That I have known and preached." my father said.

The hardest thing usually to leave behind, as was the case now, can loosely be called the conscience.

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 rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.

As a Scot and a Presbyterian, my father believed that man by nature was a mess and had fallen from an original state of grace. Somehow, I early developed the notion that he had done this by falling from a tree. As for my father, I never knew whether he believed God was a mathematician but he certainly believed God could count and that only by picking up God's rhythms were we able to regain power and beauty. Unlike many Presbyterians, he often used the word beautiful.

For a scientist, this is a good way to live and die, maybe the ideal way for any of us - excitedly finding we were wrong and excitedly waiting for tomorrow to come so we can start over.

You like to tell true stories, don't you?' he asked, and I answered, 'Yes, I like to tell stories that are true.' Then he asked, 'After you have finished your true stories sometime, why don't you make up a story and the people to go with it? Only then will you understand what happened and why. It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us.

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 death, and the rest of us tiring of this inconsolable catastrophe and turning to the next one.

At sunrise, everything is luminous but not clear

They were still so young they hadn't learned to count the odds and to sense they might owe the universe a tragedy.

Sunrise is the time to feel that you will be able to find out how to help somebody close to you who you think needs help even if he doesn't think. At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear

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

If he comes back," she nodded. I thought I saw tears in her eyes but I was mistaken. In all my life, I was never to see her cry. And also he was never to come back. Without interrupting each other, we both said at the same time, "Let's never get out of touch with each other." And we never have, although her death has come between us.