It was my view that no kill was worth the life of a wingman. . . . Pilots in my unit who lost wingmen on this basis were prohibited from leading a [section]. The were made to fly as wingman, instead.

Of all my accomplishments I may have achieved during the war, I am proudest of the fact that I never lost a wingman.

See, decide, attack, reverse.

In combat flying, fancy precision aerobatic work is really not of much use. Instead, it is the rough maneuver which succeeds.

The weapon where the man is sitting in is always superior against the other.

If he is superior then I would go home, for another day that is better.

I opened fire when the whole windshield was black with the enemy . . . at minimum range . . . it doesn't matter what your angle is to him or whether you are in a turn or any other maneuver.

A lie carries a weight that is exponentially higher than the truth. It’s weight will retard growth directly in proportion to the area lied.

In our political system, money is power. And that means a few can have a lot more power than the rest. That's bad news for everyone else - and for our democracy itself.

Being at the mercy of the acting profession, in the early days of one's career, is really brutal and feels like you have no control over your life, at all.

You don't deserve words, Sky. You deserve actions.

Painting is manual labor, no different from any other; it can be done well or poorly.

I do find stories - or literary fiction - an apt form for analyzing the world. And especially for trying to imagine the other. An agenda, again, that seems more important now than ever.

Experiences are the seeds out of which wisdom grows.

Commodity exchanges have a lot of advantages. One, you are helping transparency. Two, they are not political. It's institutional building. It can survive any environment, in theory.

Probably the geekiest attribute that I have of them all is that I’ve always had a hard time meeting friends. Like no matter where I grew up and I moved around, I always had a hard time.

It is, after all, the dab of grit that seeps into an oyster's shell that makes the pearl, not pearl-making seminars with other oysters.