William Least Heat-Moon

“The trip was to be a circular transit of the United States: clockwise. The ritual of the circle... was how I would return to myself.”

“What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do — especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.”

“The past is a fiction. You can’t go back to it.”

“Real travel is not about the grand sights, but the quiet moments, the unexpected conversations, the textures of everyday life.”

“In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.”

“The past is a curious thing. It's with us always. I suppose it's a good thing, in a way. The past is a reserve of knowledge, of wisdom, of things that we've lived and learned. We can draw on it.”

“A journey is a gesture inscribed on the landscape, not a possession.”

“The land is a great teacher. It teaches you about yourself, about your own limitations. It teaches you about your own strengths.”