Maybe death is the great equalizer, the one big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another

There is no formula to relationships. They have to be negotiated in loving ways, with room for both parties, what they want and what they need, what they can do and what their life is like. In business, people negotiate to win. They negotiate to get what they want. Maybe you’re too used to that. Love is different. Love is when you are as concerned about someone else’s situation as you are about your own.

One hundred and ten years from now no one who is here now will be alive.

My contention is that as long as you have other faculties-the emotional, psychological, intuitive faculties-you haven't lost yourself or even diminished yourself. Don't be ashamed when you're physically limited or dysfunctional; don't think that you're any less because of your condition. In fact, I feel I am even more myself than I was before I got this illness because I have been able to transcend many of the psychological and emotional limitations I had before I developed ALS.

What is it about silence that makes people uneasy?

If you don’t have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you don’t have much at all.

The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.