There's an undeniable tradition of sexism in this country that ties into the move westward by people of European descent and different ways of looking at Manifest Destiny on the west side of the Mississippi River.

I like to make movies on the west side of the Mississippi River, and a lot of times, the movies I direct have horses and big hats in them and get called westerns, but that's okay. I used to resent that, but I don't anymore.

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.

If you write a book about a bygone period that lies east of the Mississippi River, then it's a historical novel. If it's west of the Mississippi, it's a western, a different category. There's no sense to it.

Almost 70 percent of U.S. ag exports travel the upper Mississippi River and the Illinois waterway system.

I've always been fascinated by the Mississippi River and the way of life in these small river towns.