“Basic training was hard, but I made it - because I wanted to be the be...” — Ant Middleton Quote

Basic training was hard, but I made it - because I wanted to be the best me. Sometimes you have to learn that being the best you is being the second best you. I learned the hard way that the army doesn't want people who always come first. Otherwise, there would be only one person in the army.

There's nothing glorious about combat. I've been there and done that.

The kids have got their iPads, but they prefer to get out climbing trees and coming out with me. That's the kind of learning I want them to have: experiences.

When you're challenged to the extreme, you learn so much about yourself. And when you're willing to give that ultimate sacrifice, when you're willing to tackle a job or a task or a mission head-on and give 100%, you can achieve amazing things because you're almost fearless.

My parents came from working-class, small-peasant, farm-labourer backgrounds and had made the grade during the fascist years; my father came out of the army as a captain.

If you told me back in my Army days that I could have bought the same weapon that I had been using in training, I would not have believed it.

I played pretend games as a kid, army, whatever, but I never wanted to be an actor.

It wasn't until I got out of the Army and I heard Coltrane's record 'Coltrane,' when he was doing 'Inch Worm' and 'Out of This World,' that I thought, 'Oh my God, you can do that?' And then I thought, 'OK, I better go back and listen to Eric Dolphy a bit.' And then I said, 'Hmm, I better pull out these Ornette Coleman records.'