“But fishing, as we know, in libraries or anywhere else, is a tricky business, with never a certainty of who's going to catch whom.”

“A tricky bit of business, this believing in someone else. So tricky that we would never do it, if we did not want someone, someday, to believe in us, too.”

“Scatter?' Tate said. 'Why? We stay here. Why go anywhere else?''Because we'll never know how great this place is until we leave it,' Narnie said.”

“All these anglers who claim that catching fish is secondary, that it’s the trip and being outdoors that counts, they are just liars! If you go fishing, you want to catch fish! If the fish didn’t matter, you might as well stay on the beach barbecuing sausages.”

“...anyone who chooses to make fishing his occupation solely for the money is in the wrong business. If no thrill is experienced in catching fish, no satisfaction in going to sea and returning to shore, no pride in exclaiming "I am a fisherman," then a life on the water will be unfulfilling, perhaps even unbearable. Among the unhappy with whom I am acquainted, perhaps the most miserable people are those who fish out of necessity rather than out of a love of the sea and the seafaring life. I have always maintained that when I no longer feel a thrill, satisfaction, and pride from fishing, I will start a new career. (pp. 248-249)”

“The fish in the creek said nothing. Fish never do. Few people know what fish think about injustice, or anything else.”