The experienced fighting pilot does not take unnecessary risks. His business is to shoot down enemy planes, not to get shot down.
When I was racing, I had learned that you can't set stock in public adoration or your press clippings. By the time I was 26, I'd heard crowds of 100,000 scream my name, but a week later they couldn't remember who I was. You're a hero today and a bum tomorrow - hero to zero, I sometimes say.
The sensation of dying is sweet, sensuous, placid.
