No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

I’ve read a lot of really great characters in some really crappy stories, where I said, like, ‚Boy I could shine here, but the story sucks.‘ I don’t want to be part of that.

We clearly see in God’s Word that anything He tells us to do, He will give us the ability to do it. But do we really believe it? Do we want to believe it? It’s easier to come up with excuses for why we can’t do things that are hard or that we really don’t want to do.

It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

That feeling is so intoxicating, walking off the court holding the Larry O’Brien trophy. So I just want to do that again.

We are the only real aristocracy in the world: the aristocracy of money.

You have enough people against you… be for yourself.

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get.

All I wanted to do was write – at the time, poems, and prose, too. I guess my ambition was simply to make money however I could to keep myself going in some modest way, and I didn’t need much, I was unmarried at the time, no children.

No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn’t sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours‘ writing. Nothing.

The first real thought that I had of something that I might do was to write for car magazines, because I always had a car thing.

What my character is or how many jails I have lounged in, or wards or walls or wassails, how many lonely-heart poetry readings I have dodged, is beside the point. A man’s soul or lack of it will be evident with what he can carve upon a white sheet of paper.

Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.

Never complain. Never explain.

Selling out is doing something you don’t really want to do for money. That’s what selling out is.

I’m not going to get somewhere and say, ‚OK, I’m done.‘ Success is never final; I’ll just keep on going. The same way as failure never being fatal. Just keep going. I’m going to the stars and then past them.

Why do I like to write short stories? Well, I certainly didn’t intend to. I was going to write a novel. And still! I still come up with ideas for novels. And I even start novels. But something happens to them. They break up. I look at what I really want to do with the material, and it never turns out to be a novel.

I do not live on false promises. I cannot afford to live on bad advice.

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.

I am not afraid… I was born to do this.

I firmly believe that unless one has tasted the bitter pill of failure, one cannot aspire enough for success.

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it.

If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.

He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.

Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.

I like to use the hard times in the past to motivate me today.

Exercise is labor without weariness.

When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.

It was clear to me that if I could get through Princeton at the top of my class, I could do anything in the world.

No book includes the entire world. It’s limited. And so it doesn’t seem like an aesthetic compromise to have to do that. There’s so much other material to write about.

I only want my work to make people happy.

Many people tell me that they don ‚t know what to feel when they finish one of my books because the story was dark, or complicated, or strange. But while they were reading it, they were inside my world and they were happy. That’s good.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

I gather from motivation around me – from a lot of personalities who have done well in their respective fields.

You can’t build a plot out of jokes. You need tragic relief. And you need to let people know that when a lot of frightened people are running around with edged weaponry, there are deaths. Stupid deaths, usually. I’m not writing ‚The A-Team‘ – if there’s a fight going on, people will get hurt. Not letting this happen would be a betrayal.

And when I was young, my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it, as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think, I don’t think anyone in my family would really feel I’d done them an injustice by saying that. We didn’t see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home.

We like to think about how smart we are. But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it’s all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can’t change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.

I know I want to always do the best I can.

I no longer feel attracted to the well-made novel. I want to write the story that will zero in and give you intense, but not connected, moments of experience. I guess that’s the way I see life. People remake themselves bit by bit and do things they don’t understand.

I soothe my conscience now with the thought that it is better for hard words to be on paper than that Mummy should carry them in her heart.

You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

When I write, I write about my surroundings. Sometimes it’s light, and sometimes it gets very dark.

There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.