Fidelity is a gift not a requirement.

Facility is an obstacle to any creativeness. In any art form. You get a nice effect without effort, sometimes by accident, and you're satisfied; but there's nothing substantial underneath.

I sweat. If anything comes easy to me I mistrust it.

Smell can conjure up memories for me stronger than any other sense. Especially childhood memories. Perhaps because you were that much shorter and therefore closer to the ground and its smells.

Departures and arrivals tend to emphasize people's personalities.

With sense of achievement comes satisfaction… and with satisfaction comes contentment. Contentment is ultimate goal of life.

The great law of denial belongs to the powerful forces of life whether the case be one of coolish baked beans or an unrequited affection.

The wise man should restrain his senses like the crane and accomplish his purpose with due knowledge of his place, time and ability.

But if science may be said to be blind without philosophy, it is true also that philosophy is virtually empty without science.

Deadlines refine the mind. They remove variables like exotic materials and processes that take too long. The closer the deadline, the more likely you'll start thinking waaay outside the box.

W are all carrying the imprints of our most ancient ancestors. Not simply in the genetic code, but in the imprints of attention that are passed on.

Talk to people, not above them.

We are lying to ourselves and to each other. Lying about what? I don't care if we're lying. I am a bad person. I don't care. I don't care what you are.

It is a curious thing, but I have been right in everything I have done and said in my life.

Once one is beyond a certain level of commitment to the sport, life begins to seem an allegory of rowing rather than rowing an allegory of life.