Outlier are those who have been given opportunities-- -and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.

The sad thing about doping is how much it obscures our appreciation of greatness.

There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis.

There is more going on beneath the surface than we think, and more going on in little, finite moments of time than we would guess.

What interests me about fiction is plot. And what interests me about plot is whether someone tells a story that moves me within the constraints of storytelling. And I have narrowly defined storytelling.

We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for.

I interviewed one of the most powerful lawyers in the world and he told me, "At the time, it was the worst thing in the world not to be able to get a job at a fancy law firm, but it's the greatest thing that ever happened in my life." It was a humble acknowledgment of how forces much larger than himself shaped his career. I really wanted to bring that point home.