Armstrong did not prepare his famous one giant leap epigram in advance. In a 1983 interview with George Plimpton in Esquire Magazine, it was revealed that Armstrong “had produced the lines on his own … and the words were composed not on the long trip up there, as had been supposed by most of his colleagues, nor beforehand but after the actual landing of Eagle on the moon’s surface.” He explained to Plimpton that “I always knew there was a good chance of being able to return to Earth, but I thought the chances of a successful touchdown on the moon surface were about even money—fifty-fifty … Most people don’t realize how difficult the mission was. So it didn’t seem to me there was much point in thinking of something to say if we’d have to abort landing.”