During their college years the oarsmen put in terrbily long hours, often showing up at the boathouse at 6:00am for preclass practices. Both physically and psychologically, they were separated from their classmates. Events that seemed earth-shattering to them-- for example, who was demoted from the varsity to the junior varsity -- went almost unnoticed by the rest of the students. In many ways they were like combat veterans coming back from a small, bitter and distant war, able to talk only to other veterans.

There are only two kinds of stories in the world: those about which I do not care to write as many as 600 words, and those about which I would like to write many more than 600 words. But there is nothing about which I would like to write exactly 600 words.

Sometimes the best virtue learned on the battlefield is modesty.

Nixon, who spent much of his career attacking the press and saying he was a victim of the press, was in fact created by the press, in this case the L.A. Times.

If there is anything that is important to America, it is that you are not a prisoner of the past.

Few sports has as great a disparity between the time committed in practice and time actually spent in game or race conditions.

These days there's all too much coverage of pesudo-events about extraordinarily inauthentic people doing inauthentic things.