To excel at the highest level – or any level, really – you need to believe in yourself, and hands down, one of the biggest contributors to my self-confidence has been private coaching.

It was really hard for them to intimidate me. They felt I was intimidating. One of the growers had a name for me: I think it was ‚dragon lady‘ or something like it.

Living in America and, of course, just being women in general, we’ve got more strength than we think we do.

Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.

A lot of dreams can turn to nightmares… if you don’t really work them.

Even as you make progress, you need the discipline to keep from backtracking and sabotaging the success as it’s happening.

As a father, I always want my son to be perfect. When he was young, I tried to train him in martial arts, but he said, ‚I don’t want to become like Bruce Lee’s son, with everybody telling me how good my father was.‘ I just think my son is too lazy.

I believe it is universally understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly, unless they have a motive to do otherwise.

I fear that many a man’s good resolutions only need the ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt away. So, too, with fine professions and the boastings of perfection which abound in this age of shams.

I’m tough when I have to be, tender when I should be. When you find a really tough guy, he’s not a predator. He doesn’t have to prove himself. Guys who have to pretend to be tough, they ain’t. I’m tough.

Siren voices tell me, ‚You don’t have to keep going on.‘ And then you think, ‚I’m a writer. What do I do? Sit there watching my wife clean up?‘ I don’t know. I like being a writer.

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

If you tell me there’s something I can’t do, I’ll want to do it even more. Especially when it comes to entertaining.

What destroys more self-confidence than any other educational thing in America is being assigned to some remedial math when you get into some college, and then it’s not taught very well and you end up with this sense of, ‚Hey, I can’t really figure those things out.‘

No man is free who is not master of himself.

All very successful commanders are prima donnas and must be so treated.

Your attitude towards failure determines your altitude after failure.

We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 – and half the things he knows at 40 hadn’t been discovered when he was 20?

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

A man of courage is also full of faith.

Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.

When I did have some success, it further emboldens you to be like, ‚No, I’m just going to write what I feel I should write.‘

Yes, and I can sit down on a white piece of paper and work because I don’t believe too much into inspiration, only I’m waiting for inspiration, work and then inspiration may come. It’s a little too easy to say that.

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

I’m a very strong believer in listening and learning from others.

To win a national championship, you’ve got to be a little lucky.

Either you run the day or the day runs you.

Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.

All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.

The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.

It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.

If you want to be successful, it’s just this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing.

Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

Words are powerful; if you change your words, you can change your life.

I do have motivation. A lot of motivation.

Anything I do, I want to do it well.

I created myself. I have taught myself so much.

The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it… that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.

Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.

If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.

We will always tend to fulfill our own expectation of ourselves.

A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

It always remains true that if we had been greater, circumstance would have been less strong against us.

Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.

Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.

I had a lot of success from the start. I never really was tested for long periods of time. I got my first professional job while I was a senior in college. I signed with the William Morris Agency before I graduated.

Really, you don’t lose until you stop trying.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.