Norman Maclean Quote
Indirectly, though, he was present in many of our conversations. Once, for instance, my father asked me a series of questions that suddenly made me wonder whether I understood even my father whom I felt closer to than any man I have ever known. 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 Maclean
Indirectly, though, he was present in many of our conversations. Once, for instance, my father asked me a series of questions that suddenly made me wonder whether I understood even my father whom I felt closer to than any man I have ever known. 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.
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About Norman Maclean
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).