There're things we keep hidden from one another. Things we hide from ourselves. Things that are kept hidden from us. And things no one knows. You always learn the damnedest things at the worst possible times.
No soldier ever really survives a war.
I'll tell you what bravery really is. Bravery is just determination to do a job that you know has to be done.
The true meaning of America, you ask? It's in a Texas rodeo, in a policeman's badge, in the sound of laughing children, in a political rally, in a newspaper. . . In all these things, and many more, you'll find America. In all these things, you'll find freedom. And freedom is what America means to the world. And to me.
I never liked being called the 'most decorated' soldier. There were so many guys who should have gotten medals and never did-- guys who were killed.
After the war, they took Army dogs and rehabilitated them for civilian life. But they turned soldiers into civilians immediately, and let em sink or swim.
Actual combat experience is the only teacher. You never come out of a skirmish without having picked up a couple of new tricks; without having learned more about your enemy. . . Total involvement with the war was the only thing that kept me alive and pushing.
You spend the first two-thirds of your life asking to be left alone and the last third not having to ask.
I've always been vertically challenged. I never grew at all until my junior year of high school-if you call that growing.
Every obstacle must at first be put in the path of the aspiring artist. For it is only those whom you cannot discourage who are worth encouraging.
When someone admits one and rejects another which is equally in accordance with the appearances, it is clear that he has quitted all physical explanation and descended into myth.