A River Runs Through It Quotes

“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.”
― Norman Maclean, River Runs Through It

“The world is full of bastards, the number increasing rapidly the further one gets from Missoula, Montana.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.
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.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“So it is that we can seldom help anybody. Either we don't know what part to give or maybe we don't like to give any part of ourselves. Then, more often than not, the part that is needed is not wanted. And even more often, we do not have the part that is needed.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“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.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“The hardest thing usually to leave behind, as was the case now, can loosely be called the conscience.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“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.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“At sunrise, everything is luminous but not clear”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“On the Big Blackfoot River above the mouth of Belmont Creek the banks are fringed by large Ponderosa pines. In the slanting sun of late afternoon the shadows of great branches reached from across the river, and the trees took the river in their arms. The shadows continued up the bank, until they included us”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“That's how you know when you have thought too much-- when you become a dialogue between You'll probably lose and You're sure to lose.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“I did not know that stories of life are often more like rivers than books.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“I am haunted by waters.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“She was one of the most beautiful dancers I've ever seen. She made her partner feel as if he were about to be left behind, or already had been. It is a strange and wonderful and somewhat embarrassing feeling to hold someone in your arms who is trying to detach you from the earth and you aren't good enough to follow her.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“Eventually the watcher joined the river, and there was only one of us. I believe it was the river.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“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 so. At sunrise, everything is luminous, but not clear.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“Old Rawhide woke up and handed Paul the bottle of 3-7-77. “Have a snort,” she said. Paul took her hand and moved it around to where she was offering the drink to Neal. As I said, for several reasons, including our father, Paul and I did not drink when we fished. Afterwards, yes, in fact, as soon as our wet clothes were off and we could stand on them instead of the pine needles one of us would reach for the glove compartment in the car where we always carried a bottle.

If you think what I am about to tell you next is a contradiction to this, then you will have to realize that in Montana drinking beer does not count as drinking.

Paul opened the trunk of our car and counted out eight bottles of beer.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“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.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“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 the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“All there is to thinking, he said, is seeing something noticeable which makes you see something you weren't noticing which makes you see something that isn't even visible.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“Help,' he said, 'is giving part of yourself to somebody who comes to accept it willingly and needs it badly.
'So it is,' he said, using an old homiletic transition, 'that we can seldom help anybody. Either we don't know what pat to give or maybe we don't like to give any part of ourselves. Then, more often than not, the part that is needed is not wanted. And even more often, we do not have the part that is needed. It is like the auto-supply shop over town where they always say, 'Sorry, we are just out of that part.''
I told him, 'You make it too tough. Help doesn't have to be anything that big.'
He asked me, 'Do you think your mother helps him by buttering his rolls?'
'She might,' I told him. 'In fact, yes, I think she does.'
'Do you think you help him?' he asked me.
'I try to,' I said. 'My trouble is I don't know him. In fact, one of my trouble is that I don't even know whether he needs help. I don't know, that's my trouble.'
'That should have been my text,' my father said. 'We are willing to help, Lord, but what if anything is needed?”
― Norman McLean, A River Runs Through It

“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.'
Now nearly all those I loved and did not understand when I was young are dead, but I still reach out to them.”
― Norman McLean, A River Runs Through It

“Do you think you should help him?"
"Yes," he said, "I thought we were going to."
"How?" I asked.
"By taking him fishing with us."
"I've just told you," I said, "he doesn't like to fish."
"Maybe so," my brother replied. "But maybe what he likes is somebody trying to help him.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“You like to tell true stories, don't you?" my father 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. 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."

Now nearly all those I loved and did not understand when I was young are dead, but I still reach out to them.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“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. Something within fishermen tries to make fishing into a world perfect and apart--I don't know what it is or where, because 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.

The hardest thing usually to leave behind, as was the case now, can loosely be called the conscience.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“He told his Continental Divide stories in a seemingly light-hearted, slightly poetical mood such as reporters often use in writing 'human-interest' stories, but, if the mood were removed, his stories would appear as something about him that would not meet the approval of his family and that I would probably find out about in time anyway. He also must have felt honor-bound to tell me he lived other lives, even if he presented them to me as puzzles in the form of funny stories. Often I did not know what I had been told about him as we crossed the divide between our two worlds.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“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 the rocks are
timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“She was never to ask me a question about the man she loved most and understood least. Perhaps she knew enough to know that for her it was enough to have loved him.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

“How can a question be answered that asks a lifetime of questions?”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It