It's confidence; it has to be something good about getting old. One of the things is that you just don't stress about some stuff that made you so worried.

We'd all be alot happier if we'd stop assuming we're supposed to be happy.

When you come to expect humor of people, you will never get it.

Those people on daytime TV talking about how their parents never gave them the positive feedback they needed and that's why they shot them- those are not Minnesotans.

As for family values, they are whatever they are - some families are tight, others are blown away like dandelion puffs. A main value in Minnesota is still: don't waste my time, don't B.S. me, I wasn't born yesterday.

When you're a little kid, your heart is open and tender and a harsh word can go straight in and become part of your life.

Sport is a seductive metaphor (life as a game in which we gain victory through hard work, discipline, and visualizing success). but the older metaphor of farming (life as hard labor that is subject to weather and quirks of blind fate and may return no reward whatsoever and don't be surprised) is still in our blood.