A family of three had become, in Michael Arroyo's young mind, an army of two.

We can what-if ourselves to death... But what-if never does anybody any good. All any of us ever have...is one thing, and we better make the most of it while we can: What is.

A family of three had become, in Michael Arroyo's young mind, an army of two.

There's only one ball game for any writer, and it's to keep you turning the pages. That's the whole ball game. That's what I have to do.

A friend of mine who used to be my boss at ESPN once was asked why sports had exploded the way it had. He said, "Because you can't go to Blockbuster and rent tonight's game." Every night is different in sports. Every day there are different heroes and villains and conversations after the game.

It's like they take poison and then hope for the other person to die.

Read. You don't have to read me. But just read. Read the best people. Everybody's trying to do the same thing, which is keep you turning pages. Everyone does it a different way. But we all want you to understand [our books].