What you are comes to you.

We’ve been programmed, from the time that we were very, very little, about what we can’t do – about what is impossible.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.

People may think I’m trying something new by telling stories, but they’re just jokes connected to give the illusion of stories. But really, I just continue using my imagination and creating. That’s what I do.

No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.

Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.

Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

You cannot let where you are today cause you to get stuck. I’m going to be my best right now. That’s what faith is all about.

Testing oneself is best when done alone.

Occasionally the conflict between ‚what we stand for‘ and ‚what we do‘ has been forthrightly addressed.

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

My entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor.

Whatever that means, however you got on that mountain, why not try to climb it? And do it in your own way.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

Inside of every problem lies an opportunity.

I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb… and I also know that I’m not blonde.

The Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn’t allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.

Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent.

How you played in yesterday’s game is all that counts.

People don’t usually compliment your character.

I say luck is when an opportunity comes along and you’re prepared for it.

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.

I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don’t hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.

You should never give up your inner self.

Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin.

I try to be the same person I was yesterday.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

You can never get enough of what you don’t want.

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

I’m very secure about my talents and about who I am.

Egos are never nice. I have been a victim of it a lot of times in my career. Whenever I have used it, I have failed.

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.

I believe in believing. My coach John Kavanagh is a big atheist, and he is always trying to persuade people to his way of thinking, and I think, ‚What a waste of energy.‘ If people want to believe in this god or that god, that’s fine by me; believe away. But I think we can be our own gods. I believe in myself.

Feeling sorry for ourselves is the most useless waste of energy on the planet. It does absolutely no good. We can’t let our circumstances or what others do or don’t do control us. We can decide to be happy regardless.

Men take only their needs into consideration – never their abilities.

I realized the other day that I’ve lived in New York longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

The more you seek the uncomfortable, the more you will become comfortable.

Without forgiveness, there’s no future.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.

It is amazing how a new child can refocus one’s direction seconds after its birth.

I’m not arrogant enough to look back on my career and criticize my choices. It’s really not my place.

I stopped doing drugs when I was 20. I was finished with drugs before Nirvana even started.

My mother did not like children.

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.

If there are people you haven’t forgiven, you’re not going to really awaken. You have to let go.

I was brought up to try to see what was wrong and right it. Since I am a writer, writing is how I right it.

Here comes 40. I’m feeling my age and I’ve ordered the Ferrari. I’m going to get the whole mid-life crisis package.

I like actors very much, but to marry one would be like marrying your brother. You look too much alike in the mirror.

If all my bridge coach ever told me was that I was ‚satisfactory,‘ I would have no hope of ever getting better. How would I know who was the best? How would I know what I was doing differently?

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn’t, then why would you say I am.

My message isn’t perfectly defined. I have, as a human being, fallen to peer pressure.

We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

No one should be ashamed to admit he is wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

In search of my mother’s garden, I found my own.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

At fifty everyone has the face he deserves.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.