What is learned out of hard work and trial is inevitably more powerful than what is learned easily.

Anyone who has ever scanned the bookshelves of a new girlfriend or boyfriend- or peeked inside his or her medicine cabinet- understands this implicitly; you can learn as much - or more - from one glance at a private space as you can from hours of exposure to a public face.

It's as if you were interested in fashion and your neighbor when you were growing up happened to be Giorgio Armani.

Now I basically just read spy stories because they're about solving a puzzle within the constraints of history. It's the tick tock, the clockwork that I'm interested in.

Change your mind about something significant every day.

Arousal leaves us mind-blind.

Bad improvisers block action, often with a high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action.