William Least Heat-Moon

What is it in man that for a long while lies unknown and unseen only one day to emerge and push him into a new land of the eye, a new region of the mind, a place he has never dreamed of?

William Least Heat-Moon, also named William Lewis Trogdon (born 27 August 1939), is an American travel writer and historian of English, Irish, and Osage ancestry.

Quotes

At any particular moment in a man's life, he can say that everything he has done and not done, that has been done and not been done to him, has brought him to that moment.

Blue Highways (1982)

Other than to amuse himself, why should a man pretend to know where he's going or understand what he sees?

• In a land of quince jelly, apple butter, apricot jam, blueberry preserves, pear conserves, and lemon marmalade, you always get grape jelly.
  • Part One, Chapter 14

• What is it in man that for a long while lies unknown and unseen only one day to emerge and push him into a new land of the eye, a new region of the mind, a place he has never dreamed of? Maybe it's like the force in spores lying quietly under asphalt until the day they push a soft, bulbous mushroom head right through the pavement. There's nothing you can do to stop it.
  • Part Four, Chapter 12

• At any particular moment in a man's life, he can say that everything he has done and not done, that has been done and not been done to him, has brought him to that moment. If he's being installed as Chieftain or receiving a Nobel Prize, that's a fulfilling notion. But if he's in a sleeping bag at ten thousand feet in a snowstorm, parked in the middle of a highway and waiting to freeze to death, the idea can make him feel calamitously stupid.
  • Part Five, Chapter 3

• Other than to amuse himself, why should a man pretend to know where he's going or understand what he sees?
  • Part Five, Chapter 6

• Instead of insight, maybe all a man gets is strength to wander for a while. Maybe the only gift is a chance to inquire, to know nothing for certain. An inheritance of wonder and nothing more.
  • Part Six, Chapter 9

• Boredom lies only with the traveler's limited perception and his failure to explore deeply enough. After a while, I found my perception limited.
  • Part Seven, Chapter 7

• I can't say, over the miles, that I had learned what I had wanted to know because I hadn't known what I wanted to know. But I did learn what I didn't know I wanted to know.
  • Part Ten, Chapter 4

External links

• Real Audio interviews with William Least Heat-Moon by Don Swaim (1983, 1984 & 1991)
• Booknotes interview with Least Heat-Moon on River-Horse: A Voyage Across America (16 January 2000)
• NPR interview with William Least Heat-Moon by Tom Ashbrook, On Point (1 January 2010)
• In Depth interview with Least Heat-Moon (7 August 2005)