“Here the earth, as if to prove its immensity, empties itself. Gertrude Stein said: 'In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is.' The uncluttered stretches of the American West and the deserted miles of roads force a lone traveler to pay attention to them by leaving him isolated in them. This squander of land substitutes a sense of self with a sense of place by giving him days of himself until, tiring of his own small compass, he looks for relief to the bigness outside -- a grandness that demands attention not just for its scope, but for its age, its diversity, its continual change. The isolating immensity reveals what lies covered in places noisier, busier, more filled up. For me, what I saw revealed was this (only this): a man nearly desperate because his significance had come to lie within his own narrow ambit.” AmericaTravelMemoirTravel WritingAmerican LiteratureRoad Trips Book:Blue Highways Source: Blue Highways
“Whoever the last true cowboy in America turns out to be, he's likely to be an Indian.” LastsAmericaTurnsIndianCowboy Author:William Least Heat-Moon
“On the old highway maps of America, the main routes were red and the back roads blue. Now even the colors are changing.” AmericaChangeColorRedBlueMapsRoutesHighwaysBack Roads Book:BLUE HIGHWAYS Revisited Source: BLUE HIGHWAYS Revisited
“The thing that overwhelms me when I go out now is the sprawlation of America.” America Author:William Least Heat-Moon
