When I went back to Shea last year it really hit me how much the fans care for me, it still gives me goose bumps. I want to do the right thing for them and my family.

If you can get an out on one pitch, take it. Let the strikeouts come on the outstanding pitches. Winning is the big thing. If you throw a lot of pitches, before you know it, your arm is gone.

I've done enough wrong on my own, I don't want to get blamed for something I didn't do.

My first year in baseball, there were only one or two reporters. My second year, I got to the Triple-A playoffs, there were four or five. When I came up in 1984, I never saw so many people.

My father helped me become a ballplayer and take the good with the bad.

He makes it look easy. You wish there was another league he could get called up to.

Plus, when you get in tough situations, like the bases loaded and nobody out, you never give in.

I'm glad I don't have to face that guy (Don Mattingly) every day. He has that look that few hitters have. I don't know if it's his stance, his eyes or what, but you can tell he means business.

You got the ball in your hands and you're in command, and if you get your good pitch where you want it, nobody's gonna hit you.

The day I pitched, I would drink either 'cause I was celebrating or I lost and couldn't sleep.

I love the fans and I appreciate how much they care for me.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

I think America is in trouble, but it's not beyond repair. But it's going to take leadership who sees the greatness of this country and who believes that, once again, we can be one nation under God.

Any irrational fears?no, i'm quite a rationalist. i'm not superstitious, i think life is too full of natural wonders and logical complexities to worry about illogical things.

Drive your business. Let not your business drive you.

Suicides are timid murderers. Masochism instead of Sadism.

For prayer is the language of the heart.

I never used the press for anything except my charity.

I have a million small memories that will sustain me through life.

Not very good, I am afraid. But now really, do not you think Udolpho the nicest book in the world?" "The nicest—by which I suppose you mean the neatest. That must depend upon the binding.

All this has been very formative in both my research and my teaching, so I value it enormously in my life. It's why I'm a strong proponent of general education -- because I saw how it opened my eyes.