Lists of books we reread and books we can't finish tell more about us than about the relative worth of the books themselves.

One of the things I have tried to do with this book and with all of them really is avoid that simple, easy, reductionist view of motivation and to show we do things for a complex net of reasons, a real braid of reasons.

Lists of books we reread and books we can't finish tell more about us than about the relative worth of the books themselves.

What you believe matters, however. It’s all anyone has to act on. And since what you do is who you are, your actions define you. If you don’t believe anything is true simply because you can’t logically prove what’s true, you won’t do anything. You won’t be anything. You’ll end up spending your life in a rocking chair looking out at the horizon waiting for an answer that never comes. You might as well be dead. It’s an old philosophical problem.

Let the truth take care of itself, I decided. It's done all right on its own so far.

Storytelling is an ancient and honorable act. An essential role to play in the community or tribe. It's one that I embrace wholeheartedly and have been fortunate enough to be rewarded for.

Choose your agent as carefully as you would choose your accountant or lawyer. Or dentist.