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

If you want to grow old as a pilot, you've got to know when to push it, and when to back off.

You don't concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done.

Unfortunately, many people do not consider fun an important item on their daily agenda. For me, that was always a high priority in whatever I was doing.

The best pilots fly more than the others; that's why they're the best.

There is no such thing as a natural born pilot. Whatever my aptitudes or talents, becoming a proficient pilot was hard work, really a lifetime's learning experience. For the best pilots, flying is an obsession, the one thing in life they must do continually. The best pilots fly more than the others; that's why they're the best. Experience is everything. The eagerness to learn how and why every piece of equipment works is everything. And luck is everything, too.

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