I feel like I'm waiting on something that isn't going to happen Don't complain; just work harder.

It's very important to know when you're in a pissing match. And it's very important to get out of it as quickly as possible.

There's a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build.

The most difficult part of writing a book is not devising a plot which will captivate the reader. It's not developing characters the reader will have strong feelings for or against. It is not finding a setting which will take the reader to a place he or she as never been. It is not the research, whether in fiction or non-fiction. The most difficult task facing a writer is to find the voice in which to tell the story.

There's a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build. Coach Graham worked in a no-coddling zone. Self-esteem? He knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to develop it: You give them something they can't do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.

The great thing about working out at a gym is that if you put in effort, you get very obvious results. The same should be true of college. A professor’s job is to teach students how to see their minds growing in the same way they can see their muscles grow when they look in a mirror.

If nobody ever worried about what was in other people's heads, we’d all be 33 percent more effective in our lives and our jobs.