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.

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

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

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.

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.

There is no giving advice to a young man so much in love.

The transition between life in red-state America and life in the Arab capital was at times overwhelming because of the traditional segregation of men and women in many public and private settings.

The only things in my life that compatibly exists with this grand universe are the creative works of the human spirit.

Doing a life study while drunk and in the process of being seduced is never a formula for quality art.

We don't know what those other cycles were caused by in the past. Could be dinosaur flatulence, you know, or who knows?

One of the great mind destroyers of college education is the belief that if it's very complex, it's very profound.

There's not much to be done about the impossibility. One must instead get rid of the desire.

A tortoise is, I suppose, a Jewish pet. It knows its place. Out on the lawn. It doesn't bark. It doesn't tear the Dralon.

Maybe the body learns from dreams. Maybe the muscles, the neutrons, revitalize.

I think the Yamaha has a giant quality. When you combine the Yamaha with other organs, you get this crazy rectangular sound. It's kind of flat and thick.