One of the most basic factors in sports is that winning becomes a habit, and losing is the same way. When failure starts to feel normal in your life or your work or even your darkest vices, you won't have to go looking for trouble, because trouble will find you. Count on it.

But our trip was different. It was a classic affirmation of everything right and true and decent in the national character. It was a gross, physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country-but only for those with true grit. And we were chock full of that.

We have bigger things to brood on and enormous reasons for wallowing in terminal craziness until we finally hit bottom.

History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of "history" it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody understands at the time--and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

Cover a war in a place where you can't drink beer or talk to a woman? Hell no!

Children are like TV sets. When they start acting weird, whack them across the head with a big rubber basketball shoe.

I think you either have to have a very strong decisive person at the top or else a really brilliant staff command.