I am really quite proud of most of the people I " know who have "made it," who do things to help people.

The way to succeed is never quit. That's it. But really be humble about it. ... You start out lowly and humble and you carefully try to learn an accretion of little things that help you get there.

When you start about family, about lineage and ancestry, you are talking about every person on earth.

Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that there's a big difference between being a writer and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at the typewriter. You've got to want to write, I say to them, not want to be a writer. The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and poor-paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune, there are thousands more whose longing is never requited. Even those who succeed often know long periods of neglect and poverty. I did.

Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help.

In the bush, trust no one you don't know.

Racism and hatred are synonymous.