Jessica Lynch Quotations

Yesterday she was feeling very weak, she was tired and she was hungry as well, ... And my mom said this morning when she called she was real high-spirited, she was able to talk a little louder, and she was excited.

She taught me to be a stronger person. She was so strong herself that it kind of rubbed off, ... I feel that's why those nine days in that hospital -- that's why I got through it. Lori was there. I could feel her giving me strength to keep going.

Nobody has told us not to talk about it. Our main concern is to get Jessie back on her feet in good health right now.

I think I provided a way to boost everybody's confidence about the war,

I think we've definitely made progress over there.

I think a lot of people expected me to come on and be much more involved in every single issue that included the university, ... But you have to realize that this is the first time we had done this and I had to remain a more silent type to really learn and develop an understanding of how things work.

We never really found a true solution to the R1 issue. We said we're going to enforce it more, but that doesn't solve the problem that you're trying to fight bad behavior with a law that singles out students and tries to keep them from living somewhere, ... Until we start talking about solutions and not treatments, it's going to be an issue again whether we like it or not.

There's soldiers out there every day that are doing heroic things... We don't need to create them.

There's not day that goes by that I don't remember why I'm in the situation I'm in.

Right now we are really not supposed to talk about that subject, you know, ... It is still an ongoing investigation, and we can't talk about nothing like that.

Somebody needs to start speaking for us and I'm hoping that's what the next liaison does. Now that we have a working understanding of city government, let's change it,

They told me I'd never probably see the front-line area.

It was extremely hard. It will always be emotionally hard.

It takes a brave bunch of people to risk their own lives to go in and free a hostage, ... We didn't even know she was captured, you know. Last we knew she was just missing in action.

It was hard getting stopped all the time when I wasn't used to it. It doesn't bother me now. But I don't want any special attention drawn to me,

I have to say I am a little nervous ? the freshmen that I'll be with were eighth-graders when I graduated from high school,

I know that I'm already in the history books and that people are going to remember me as the prisoner of war and the fabricated stories, but you know, to me I was just another soldier over there doing my job.

Certain days I think definitely because we went in there and we got Saddam and that was our mission. On other days, we lost so many lives and so many brothers and sisters...on that aspect, no.

Honesty has always been very important to me.

I could be, you know, the person that shows little kids that giving up isn't something that you should do.

I don't come from a rich family - it's not like we lived in a cardboard box, but we didn't have a ton of money.

I don't think any war is worth having our soldiers killed.

I grew up in Palestine, West Virginia, which is mostly a farming community; there aren't a lot of jobs.

I remember the first time I put on the Army uniform. I just felt like a totally different person - I felt proud.

Since coming back from Iraq, there's been so many triumphs and obstacles standing in my way, so whenever I set my mind to something, I definitely just go full blast at it.

I woke up and all I could see was Iraqis standing all around me, looking down upon me. I knew at that moment something terrible had happened and I wasn't in the right place.

The nurses at the hospital tried to soothe me, and they even tried unsuccessfully at one point to return me to Americans.

The truth is always more heroic than the hype.

The whole idea that the rescue was staged or the soldiers were shooting blanks, that's just obvious stuff. Why would you do that in the middle of a war? It's just crazy.

I had the good fortune and opportunity to come home and to tell the truth; many soldiers, like Pat Tillman… did not have that opportunity. The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype.

I have repeatedly said, when asked, that if the stories about me helped inspired our troops and rally a nation, then perhaps there was some good.

I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary. People like Lori Piestewa and First Sergeant Dowdy who picked up fellow soldiers in harm's way. Or people like Patrick Miller and Sergeant Donald Walters who actually fought until the very end. The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales.

I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do.

I try to dream about peaceful things, beaches, that is what I cannot understand. Why are they chasing me?

If I could, I would definitely do it again,