AtomicQuote

Norman Maclean Quotes

In 1949 the Smokejumpers were still so young that they referred affectionately to all fires they jumped on as ten o’clock fires, as if they already had them under control before they jumped. They were...

Norman Maclean

In 1949 the Smokejumpers were still so young that they referred affectionately to all fires they jumped on as ten o’clock fires, as if they already had them under control before they jumped. They were...

Ahead and to the west was our ranger station - and the mountains of Idaho, poems of geology stretching beyond any boundaries and seemingly even beyond the world.

Norman Maclean

Ahead and to the west was our ranger station - and the mountains of Idaho, poems of geology stretching beyond any boundaries and seemingly even beyond the world.

Tags: geology, idaho, landscape, mountains, nature

About Author
Norman Fitzroy Maclean (December 23, 1902 – August 2, 1990) was an American professor at the University of Chicago who, following his retirement, became a major figure in American literature. Maclean is best known for his Hemingwayesque writing, his collection of novellas A River Runs Through It and Other Stories (1976), and the creative nonfiction book Young Men and Fire (1992).

I tried to find something I already knew about life that might help me reach out and touch my brother and get him to look at me and himself.

Norman Maclean

I tried to find something I already knew about life that might help me reach out and touch my brother and get him to look at me and himself.

Tags: help

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 raindr...

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 rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindr...

Tags: river, time, water, words

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

Norman Maclean

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

Tags: nature writing

At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.

Norman Maclean

At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.

Tags: philosophy, sunrise, thoughts, clear, light, luminous, sun

I had as yet no notion that life every now and then becomes literature—not for long, of course, but long enough to be what we best remember, and often enough so that what we eventually come to mean by...

Norman Maclean

I had as yet no notion that life every now and then becomes literature—not for long, of course, but long enough to be what we best remember, and often enough so that what we eventually come to mean by...

Tags: literature, purpose

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

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.

I, an old man, have written this fire report. Among other things, it was important to me, as an exercise for old age, to enlarge my knowledge and spirit so I could accompany young men whose lives I mi...

Norman Maclean

I, an old man, have written this fire report. Among other things, it was important to me, as an exercise for old age, to enlarge my knowledge and spirit so I could accompany young men whose lives I mi...

Slowly we became silent, and silence itself if an enemy to friendship.

Norman Maclean

Slowly we became silent, and silence itself if an enemy to friendship.

Tags: friends, friendship, philosophy, silence

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

Norman Maclean

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

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

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

Time was just a hangover from the past with no present meaning

Norman Maclean

Time was just a hangover from the past with no present meaning

He himself has thinned out to the vanishing point of being only decisions once made that he can't do anything about ever after.

Norman Maclean

He himself has thinned out to the vanishing point of being only decisions once made that he can't do anything about ever after.

In this story of the outside world and the inside world with a fire between, the outside world of little screwups recedes now for a few hours to be taken over by the inside world of blowups, this time...

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 a few hours to be taken over by the inside world of blowups, this time...

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...

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 late afternoon the shadows of great branches reached from across the...

Power comes not from power everywhere, but from knowing where to put it on.

Norman Maclean

Power comes not from power everywhere, but from knowing where to put it on.

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, a...

Norman Maclean

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, a...

Perhaps we always wondered which of us was tougher, but, if boyhood questions aren't answered before a certain point in time, they can't ever be raised again. So we returned to being gracious to each...

Norman Maclean

Perhaps we always wondered which of us was tougher, but, if boyhood questions aren't answered before a certain point in time, they can't ever be raised again. So we returned to being gracious to each...

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.

Norman Maclean

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.

Tags: sunrise, live, understanding