Just before you break through the sound barrier, the cockpit shakes the most.

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

The first time I ever saw a jet, I shot it down.

At the moment of truth, there are either reasons or results.

You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can't, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don't give up.

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.