It's so much better to hand over a finished book than having all these people waiting.

"Lights," I said softly. This had become my favorite word over the past week. In my mind, it had become synonymous with freedom.

If I was feeling depressed or frustrated about my lot in life, all I had to do was tap the Player One button, and my worries would instantly slip away as my mind focused itself on the relentless pixelated onslaught on the screen in front of me. There, inside the game's two-dimensional universe, life was simple: It's just you against the machine. Move with your left hand, shoot with your right, and try to stay alive as long as possible.

I've been invited to speak at about 20 colleges. There's always this moment when I'm having dinner with the college president: 'Ernie, where'd you go to school?'

One person can keep a secret, but not two.

I think it's a bit silly to brand the Internet as the 'downfall of youth.'

I felt like a kid standing in the world's greatest video arcade without any quarters, unable to do anything but walk around and watch the other kids play.