Eulogies never talk about what was on your resume. Be remembered for how you made people feel and your passions

My mother was a continual source of wisdom and great advice...she taught me that there is always a way around a problem-you've just got to find it. Keep trying doors; one will eventually open. She also taught me to accept failure as part and parcel of life. It's not the opposite of success; it's an integral part of success. I talk a lot about learning to become fearless in your approach to life. But fearlessness is not the absence of fear. It's the mastery of fear. It's all about getting up one more time than you fall down.

As a blogger, Chez Pazienza is filled with outrage, passion and insight -- delivered with a distinctive point of view, a wicked sense of humor, and a two-fisted style of prose. In Dead Star Twilight, he turns all these on himself -- and produces a fierce, funny, disturbing, but ultimately uplifting memoir. This is the book A Million Little Pieces dreamed of being.

Lasting social change unfolds from inside out: from the inner to the outer being, from inner to outer realities.

Today we often use deadlines—real and imaginary—to imprison ourselves.

Everything you do, you'll do better with a good night's sleep.

Being a mother is the role I'm most proud of.