Consistent motivation usually comes from a consuming desire to be able to perform at your best under pressure, namely, the pressure produced by tough competition. If a player needed me to light a fire under him by turning the other team into a demon, he was lacking something I couldn't give him.

By instinct we-leaders-want to run hard all the time; by intellect we know this is not possible. Reconciling those two positions in the context of leadership is an ongoing challenge.

Machines aren't replacing proofreaders at all. Copy editors, who proofread and much, much more, use spellcheck as a tool but read every word that appears in the paper

Consistent effort is a consistent challenge.

To a winner, complacency and overconfidence can be destructive. To losers, desperation and despondency are just as harmful.

A harsh reality of newspaper editing is that the deadlines don't allow for the polish that you expect in books or even magazines

Writers' bedtimes vary, but few have been spared the shock of a copy editor's early wake-up call.