Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man's soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it.

A favorite of hers was Come On Seabiscuit a 1963 kiddie book. On the irony of writing about physical paragons while being so incapacitated herself Laura Hillenbrand says "I'm looking for a way out of here. Personal life
Hillenbrand suffers from debilitating chronic fatigue syndrome and remains largely confined to her home.

Hillenbrand's second book was Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival Resilience and Redemption (2010) a biography of World War II hero Louis Zamperini. C and rarely leaves her house because of the condition. Hillenbrand married Borden Flanagan a professor of Government at American University and her college sweetheart in 2008.