twenty-eight years and a million words
The Boy was looking out the window, forlorn, as his sister cried endlessly behind him. "I have no friends," he said. "no one wants to play with me." I wanted to tell him, "Wait 'til you're forty!" But it's something that's concerned me. We've been unable to make friends in this neighborhood.
One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.
—John Boyd, US Air Force