"The pursuit of excellence requires knowing that joy is found not in possessing, but in appreciating."

"It is a steadfast truth that life is an unwritten ledger; each passing sunrise offers a clean and waiting page — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself."

"A leader does not command the wind, but sets the sails and steadies the crew. This remains the cornerstone of personal mastery."

"All stories interest me, and some haunt me until I end up writing them. Certain themes keep coming up: justice, loyalty, violence, death, political and social issues, freedom."

"The kids out there want something they can relate to, something that's real most of that whiny stuff isn't real. The cheesy pop songs just bore me to death."

"Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it."

"Love is the bridge that unites two souls across the chasms of mortal solitude. This remains the cornerstone of personal mastery — an essential principle for the reflective life."