I tell you what I love - and I think you get better as you get older - when you're younger and you don't know what you don't know, you tend to talk more about what you think you know. You shut out the opportunity to learn what you don't know.

I love underdogs, people who have achieved extraordinary things against the odds.

All of us make assumptions about what somebody's potential is, because we all think of why somebody can or can't do something. We make terrible assumptions.

Stories have inspired me all my life. I like reading about what other people have done and it inspires me to share my own stories, and encourage people to make their own life stories.

There was some expiration point to my life, and it became very important to maximize the time that I did have on Earth. That's what led me to my personal philosophy: "No Opportunity Wasted" - NOW for short, which is about living life to the fullest.

Schools often box kids into predefined categories. But we don't know what amazing ideas, inventions, cures, and contributions all these youths really have.

With any good story, you need the adversary, the heroes and villains. You need a good mixture to make it work.