Many a serious thinker has been produced in prisons, where we have nothing to do but think.

The whole concept of stage fright is fascinating. Actors get stage fright, but they wouldn't be on the stage in the first place if they just succumbed to it. There's this love/hate relationship with the spotlight.

Understand: people will constantly attack you in life. One of their main weapons will be to instill in you doubts about yourself – your worth, your abilities, your potential. They will often disguise this as their objective opinion, but invariably it has a political purpose – they want to keep you down.

There are people that don't need to run towards adversity. They grew up in circumstances where it's forced upon them. Other people lead, pushier lives. So there are all kinds of forms of adversity in the world.

Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.

50 is a great person. I was a little intimidated when I met him for the first time in 2006. I didn't know what to expect. It ended up we got along really well. That's why we decided to do a book together, The 50th Law of Power.

Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter