When you are on the erg your mind is too busy to pay attention to the sounds of the machine; you notice only that they are indeed loud.

There is a place where cerebral an corporeal meet: they call it rowing

The oars game me power but also taught me humility.

Ergometer is Greek for 'work meter'

In college, I was an editor on the student daily... To the extent that I noticed the existence of crew at all, I saw only what appeared to be big-boned acolytes who rose at dawn.

A boat is the hardest think I know of to put into perspective. It is so much like a human figure, there is something alive about it.

The single sculler, alone on the river at dawn, or spotlighted in his lane during a race, is th emost romantic, the most quixotic figure in all rowing.

The greatest poet who ever wrote about rowing is Virgil, the greatest historian is Thucydides, but the greatest imagination ever to turn its attention to the sport is that of painter, Thomas Eakins.

Rowing was not simple for me. I nodded whenever the instructor made a point, as if I understood, but I could as easily have assembled the space shuttle as have repeated the moves she was explaining.

If rowing is a trial then the ergometer is the courtroom, the meter is the jury. And an honest jury at that, because the numbers do not lie.

Rowing it was pointed out, was a sport that risked few injuries. So it was, I ould discover, but only if you did it right.

Real men are advocates for women's rights.

I doubted myself, and that made me doubt you. But you weren’t the problem. You were never the problem. I should have trusted you, but I didn’t, because I couldn’t trust myself.

There is a mighty big difference between good sound reasons and reasons that sound good.

Confidence brings joy when we let God be God.

Fearlessness comes from working with the softness of the human heart.

Next to the writer of real estate advertisements, the autobiographer is the most suspect of prose artists.

Digital photography and Photoshop have made it very easy for people to take pictures. It's a medium that allows a lot of mediocre stuff to get through.

Literature is so common a luxury that the age has grown fastidious.

When ever I have a Problem, I just sing. Then I know my voice is a lot worse then my Problem.

who was the cynic who had defined gratitude as thanks for favors to come?