I was born two months early, and everyone had given up on me. But my mother insisted on my life.

I learned to hear silence. That's the kind of life I lived: simple. I learned to see things in people around me, in my mom, dad, brothers and sisters.

But I always had the ability to say no. That's how I called my own shots.

As I've mentioned, a large part of my father's legacy is the lesson he taught his sons. He brought us together and said, 'The measure of a man is how well he provides for his children.

We're all imperfect, and life is simply a perpetual, unending struggle against those imperfections.

I don't very often read novels.

I'd seen my father. He was a poor man, and I watched him do astonishing things.