I think there's a suspicion in the South of people putting on airs. You see it in most successful Southern politicians but you also see it in someone like Richard Petty who may be a multimillionaire stock car driver but he's also beloved because he has a nice self-deprecatory way about him.

I feel comfortable around every driver out there and each driver is in charge of their own car but you feel very secure racing the competition out there.

You cannot expect the guy who drove the car into the ditch to navigate it out of the ditch. You have to put a new driver in the seat. I'm not saying the new driver is going to be any better but we need a new driver. Kerry is the only choice.

I think fear is what keeps us from going over the edge. I mean as a race car driver I don't think what makes a good race car driver is a fearless person. I think it's somebody that is comfortable being behind the wheel of something that's somewhat out of control.

To drive an F1 car you have to be a little mad. On the morning of a race there's a mix of excitement and fear. If it's a wet track then it's worse as you're not in control most of the time which is the thing all drivers fear the most.

But I have a driver so I can return calls while I'm in the car.

The year most of my high school friends and I got our driver's permits the coolest thing one could do was stand outside after school and twirl one's car keys like a lifeguard whistle. That jingling sound meant freedom and power.

When I saw all those other drivers I realized that they wanted to win that money just as much as I did. But I didn't have to worry. A tire came off my car and I was lucky I got it off the track.

The irony is that it was tougher to rent a car from Cerberus when it owned Alamo than to buy a semi-automatic. To rent a car one had to provide ID a drivers' license and get insurance coverage. To buy a gun? Cash and carry from the back of a station wagon at a gun show. No concerns about downstream liability or risk.

My grandma's the most careful safe driver in the world. You put her in a rental car and she's doing doughnuts in the K-Mart parking lot!

Some years ago there was a study to discover the most stressful occupation. It turned out not to be the head of a large business football manager or prime minister but rather: bus driver.

Death is a billion-dollar business. They can't even pass a law where it takes seven days to get a gun. Why don't you have to go through the same kind of screening you do to get a driver's license? It's totally insane.

It is with rivers as it is with people: the greatest are not always the most agreeable nor the best to live with.

Congress has an obligation to protect our country's natural beauty embodied in our nation's parks rivers and breathtaking landscapes.

We live in a state with a wonderful climate and plenty of natural beauty from the shores of Cumberland Island to the Chattahoochee River to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I have been overcome by the beauty and richness of our life together those early mornings setting out those evenings gleaming with rivers and lakes below us still holding the last light.

I saw 'Taxi Driver ' and 'Taxi Driver' kind of saved my life. The scene where Robert De Niro is looking at himself in the mirror saying 'You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Who the hell else are you talkin' to?' That's the scene that changed my life by changing my attitude about acting.