Professor Al Drake encouraged me to just write the way I talk. I decided if that's what I needed to do, I didn't need to be in school to do it.

Tom Kizzia hasn't just observed and written about Alaska for three-plus decades, he's lived it. 'Pilgrim's Wilderness' is a story that needed to be told by the only man who could tell it.

In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.

I went to Alaska as a young man just looking for adventure. And like so many of us in the '70s, we found it.

Americans are generally very self-sufficient and I think generally averse to pretension, just as I am.

I'm happy to report you still get nothing you don't need at Motel 6, and, therefore, you don't have to pay for it. I don't need valet parking. If I can drive the old crate 300 miles to the hotel all by myself, I can certainly handle the last nine feet to the parking space.