“We walked where the ancient pier juts into the sea.Stood on the rim of the pool, by the circleof black boulders. No one saw we were thereand everyone who had ever been therestood silently in air.Where else do we ever have to go, and why?”

“Why are we doing this?" Caine asked him. "You know damned well why we're doing this. Because it's a fight. It may be THE fight. I may be the final fight. And what else are we good at, you and me? What are we going to do if we ever get out there anyway?”

“I think if we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed.”

“We walked on the moon. We made footprints somewhere no one else had ever made footprints, and unless someone comes and rubs them out, those footprints will be there forever because there’s no wind.”

“Here is the truth: It matters, what you do at war. It matters more than you ever want to know. Because countries, like people, have collective consciences and memories and souls, and the violence we deliver in the name of our nation is pooled like sickly tar at the bottom of who we are. ... We may wish it were not so, but action amounts to identity. We become what we do.”

“The only way we are ever going to ensure peace on this planet is to adopt the entire world as "our family". We are going to have to hug them, and kiss them. And dance and play with them. And we are going to have to sit and talk and walk and cry with them. Because when we do, we'll be able to see that indeed, everyone is beautiful, and we all complement each other beautifully and we would all be poorer without each other.”