In that moment it dawned on me that everything has to line up perfectly for something to turn out this awful.

I am twelve thousand miles wiser, twelve thousand miles more resilient, and I have twelve thousand miles more faith in God.

I was so thankful that my parents trusted me enough and had enough faith in my abilities to let me follow my passion and try to do something great, even if I might fail.

Fewer people have successfully solo-circumnavigated the globe than have journeyed into space.

The things that happen on the sea take you beyond yourself, beyond human capability.

On June 10, the worst storm in the series swept across the middle of the Indian Ocean and Wild Eyes was directly in its path.

I wanted to break the record, of course, and become the youngest person to sail around the world solo and unassisted.

Wild Eyes was built for speed and I was flying down walls of water twenty and thirty feet high.

The open ocean often takes you past your physical limits and when it does, sailing becomes a mental game.

Going up the mast is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a solo sailor.

But none of that kept me from picturing what a tsunami might look like if it did rise up and roar toward my little boat like some watery blue version of the Great Wall of China.

We know that energy can not be created nor destroyed but can be changed in it's form. If it can not be formed then it can not exist. We may not exist.

Nine hundred years of time and space, and I've never met anyone who wasn't important.

The slow pace of our perfection has to be borne with patience, provided that on our part we always do whatever we can to continue advancing.

It's much more straightforward to get finance when you have an Oscar.

Once you become a comedian, you accept that people are just going to yell stuff at you.

There's huge satisfaction in that, but I've got to credit all the doctors and trainers in Cleveland.

Heine commenting on the music of Louis Hector Berlioz: He is an immense nightingale, a lark as great as an eagle. . . . The music causes me to dream of fabulous empires, filled with fabulous sins.

My desire is to walk with God every day.

The music business doesn't interest me anymore.

People suddenly expected less of me and I didn't want that. Not only could I keep up with sighted kids, I could excel. I have an intense competiveness that was always in me.