"Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even."

"If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize."

"I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want."

"It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen."

"Yet each man kills the thing he loves,  By each let this be heard, Some do it with abitter look,  Some with a flattering word. The coward does it with a kiss,  The brave man with a sword!"

"When people ask me about my story, I just go through the positive stuff: the tent-pole moments, the big landmark checkpoints."

"When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more."

"I've never been a fast reader. I'm fickle; I don't finish books I start; I put a book aside for five, ten years and then take it up again."