The nurses at the hospital tried to soothe me, and they even tried unsuccessfully at one point to return me to Americans.

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.

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.

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.

You must believe in yourself, otherwise we are all lost to darkness

Before civilization, artists painted for the living. Today, most paint for a living.

As long as we acknowledge them, there's nothing to fear.

I've tried different things through the years to get some play on mainstream. I'll try to tailor-make it.

Nobody is going to move. Here is the story folks.

I think that people that are not sensitive, who seem to bang through life, do survive, but I don't think they get the really soaring feelings that people who are more artistically bent can get.

You can't go back. I know that. But you can look back.

Fascism wants Baptism coast to coast.

All people of African descent, whether they live in North or South America, the Caribbean, or in any part of the world are Africans and belong to the African nation.

People will make a life in their own terms, whether they are deaf or colorblind or autistic or whatever. And their world will be quite as rich and interesting and full as our world.