So, whenever Scooter was the Pilot, he never had a chance to fly the orbiter. So, the joke is: I'm going to have a chance to fly it first and hand it over to him.

You know, Scooter's going to do the first separation burn; I'm going to do the second separation burn.

Well, for me it really wasn't a case of deciding to be an astronaut.

And, so I set my goals on astronaut because, as a military aviator, it was, I considered that to be about the peak of a flying career.

And, obviously as a, as one who likes to travel around myself a lot, I think the Earth is a beautiful place. And, I'm looking forward to some new perspectives.

That's what Hubble can do for us. It can tell us whether the universe is expanding forever or if one day it's going to come back together.

So, I decided that whatever I was, wanted to do with my life, it would have to do, it would have to have something to do with the exploration and doing new things.

I worked for some very good people who have helped me along the way and actually enabled me to have the opportunity to be selected to join the Astronaut Corps.

I'm looking forward to coming back, back to Earth, the landing, the views.

Those folks out in the space suits are going to be getting beat up.

There's been a tremendous amount of work that's been done that you can't see in Columbia.

The garden is a miraculous place, and anything can happen on a beautiful moonlit night.

A writer sets up his own amazing experiment: his work of fiction.

In general, things either work out or they don’t, and if they don’t, you figure out something else, a plan B. There’s nothing wrong with plan B.

Family: a foundation! Family: a ‘cloth’ that keeps the ‘body’!

I am after painting reality impressed on the mind so hard that it returns as a dream, but I am not after painting dreams as such, or fantasy.

A novel is achieved with hard work, the short story with inspiration.

Labor unions should study and read the Bible instead of asking for more money. When people get right with God, they are better workers.

When I was a very small child I went to a new play group. The first thing I did was run over to a little tot with incredibly chubby cheeks and sink my teeth right into them.

Nationalism: One of the effective ways in which the modern man escapes life's ethical problems.

I don't think we should ever be at war. That's kind of naive, I suppose.