I could be, you know, the person that shows little kids that giving up isn't something that you should do.

I remember the first time I put on the Army uniform. I just felt like a totally different person - I felt proud.

The truth is always more heroic than the hype.

I try to dream about peaceful things, beaches, that is what I cannot understand. Why are they chasing me?

Honesty has always been very important to me.

I grew up in Palestine, West Virginia, which is mostly a farming community; there aren't a lot of jobs.

I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do. I did not shoot - not a round, nothing. I went down praying to my knees - that's the last thing I remember.

Certain days I think definitely because we went in there and we got Saddam and that was our mission. On other days, we lost so many lives and so many brothers and sisters...on that aspect, no.

I have repeatedly said, when asked, that if the stories about me helped inspired our troops and rally a nation, then perhaps there was some good.

The whole idea that the rescue was staged or the soldiers were shooting blanks, that's just obvious stuff. Why would you do that in the middle of a war? It's just crazy.

The nurses at the hospital tried to soothe me, and they even tried unsuccessfully at one point to return me to Americans.

Once your mind stretches to a new level it never goes back to its original dimension

Our favorites are few; since only what rises from the heart reaches it, being caught and carried on the tongues of men wheresoever love and letters journey.

It means a lot. It means I'm accountable.

What comes from a book is knowledge. What comes from the heart is wisdom.

The dinner party is a suburban form of entertainment. Its spread in our big cities represents an insidious Fifth Column suburbanization of the metropolis.

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.

Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away.

I literally change on the shop floor. I just stand there in my knickers sometimes.

Take heed, dear heart, of this large privilege; The hardest knife ill-used doth lose his edge.

Read as widely as possible, and write every day, even if it's as little as three sentences.