Physically, rowing was remarkable resistant to the camera... the camera liked power exhibited more openly, and the power of the oarsmen [is] exhibited in far too controlled a setting. Besides, the camera liked to focus on individuals, and except for the single scull, crew was sport without faces.

I have a great faith in the strength and the resilience in the American people.

With the marketing pressures driving the book world today, it's much easier to get the author of a memoir on a television show than a serious novelist.

What looked safe was not safe. What looked hard and unsafe was probably safer. Anyway, safe was somewhere else in the world.

Memory is often less about the truth than about what we want it to be.

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

Fear was the terrible secret of the battlefield and could afflict the brave as well as the timid. Worse it was contagious, and could destroy a unit before a battle even began. Because of that, commanders were first and foremost in the fear suppression business.