Then the old man's face hardened. "What about you young man?" he asked flatly. "Would you like to get what you deserve?" Jones let that question hang in the air for a moment, then sighed, shook his head, and said "Me? I surely don't want what I deserve. I'm hoping for mercy, not justice.

Everybody wants to make a difference, but nobody wants to be different. And you simply cannot have one without the other.

I tell people that I'm not necessarily any good, it's just that there is nobody like me. I just promise you will not be bored.

Even in the worst time of life, if you are still breathing, that means you are still alive. If you are still here, you haven't accomplished what is still to be accomplished. The most important part of your life is still ahead of you.

It's also a lot easier to convince people to read an entertaining story than any other type of book!

It's a lot more interesting to learn and discover real-life principles when they are revealed in the form of a story.

When I was 19 years old, both of my parents died in the same year; my mom of cancer and my dad in a car accident. Through the next two or three years and a series of bad decisions - all my own, I might add - I ended up literally homeless, before that was even a word. I even slept occasionally under a pier on the Gulf Coast.