I think all of us certainly believed the statistics which said that probably 88% chance of mission success and maybe 96% chance of survival. And we were willing to take those odds.

Obviously I was challenged by becoming a Naval aviator, by landing aboard aircraft carriers and so on.

It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.

When I first looked back at the Earth, standing on the Moon I cried

The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder.

Why don't you light that candle ?

You may not have any extra talent, but maybe you are just paying more attention to what you are doing.

I just wanted to be the first one to fly for America, not because I'd end up in the pages of history books.

I didn't mind studying. Obviously math and the physical science subjects interested me more than some of the more artistic subjects, but I think I was a pretty good student.

Got more dirt than ball. Here we go again.

We're going to see passengers in space stations in 15 years, who will be able to buy a ticket and spend a weekend in space.

Ecstasy..."When you increase your ability to create ecstasy out of those things found in everyday life, all of your ecstatic sensual experiences grow deeper.

If any of my characters require me to blacken my beard I do it, otherwise I don't.

I rebel; therefore I exist.

Film is a director's medium, and a film set is a complicated military structure - I have to keep reminding myself to stay in my place, or all will burst into chaos.

The only way artists can do things is to do it for themselves. Trying to second guess what the public wants or likes is kind of a fool's game.

As long as we are faking it we are just showing the world how to fake it - but they already are! They want to see us get real.

There's nothing so unreliable as figures, and everybody but a mathematician knows that. Figures lie right to your face.

The final test of greatness in a CEO is how well he chooses a successor and whether he can step aside and let the successor run the company.

A song is a favorite song, not because the singer can hit and hold a high note, but because of the words, their meaning.