In terms of writing about horses, I fell backwards into that. I was intent on getting a Ph.D., becoming a professor, and writing on history but I got sick 14 years ago when I was 19. Getting sick derailed that plan completely

Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen.

We just sat there and watched the plane pass the island, and it never came back," he said. "I could see it on the radar. It makes you feel terrible. Life was cheap in war.

I was 8 years old when I went across the street from my house to a fair, and they always had a used book sale. For a quarter I bought a book called 'Come On Seabiscuit.' I loved that book. It stayed with me all those years

I've used a cellphone exactly twice. Things move on. The world changes. And I don't know it

When he thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him.

His conviction that everything happened for a reason, and would come to good, gave him laughing equanimity even in hard times.