It wasn't that the X-1 would kill you, it was the systems in the X-1 that would kill you.

The secret of my success is that I always managed to live to fly another day.

All that I am ... I owe to the Air Force.

I don't think about life everlasting. If something doesn't have scientific evidence to back it up, I don't believe it. I'm a straight shooter.

You concentrate on what you are doing, to do the best job you can, to stay out of a serious situation. That’s the way the X-1 was.

I have no regrets about my life. People ask, "If you had to do it all over again, would you do it differently?" No. That's speculation.

Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own.