A dream without a plan is just a wish

The name we give to something shapes our attitude toward it.

To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.

It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading.

Peace is not won by those who fiercely guard their differences, but by those who with open minds and hearts seek out connections.

I love revision. Where else can spilled milk be turned into ice cream?

As much pleasure as young people get from Twittering and texting, there is no way these activities will nourish their minds and spirits the way literature can.

Reading can be a road to freedom or a key to a secret garden, which, if tended, will transform all of life.

As I look back on what I have written, I can see that the very persons who have taken away my time are those who have given me something to say.

Some folks are natural born kickers. They can always find a way to turn disaster into butter.

I love to read. But I loved to read a lot longer than I started to love writing.

I cannot give you the formula for success but I can give you the formula for failure which is-try to please everybody.

But when I was a teenager, the idea of spending the rest of my life in a factory was real depressing. So the idea that I could become a musician opened up some possibilities I didn't see otherwise.

I take it that the good of mankind means the attainment, by every man, of all the happiness which he can enjoy without diminishing the happiness of his fellow men.

Sport is how poor kids from poor countries pass through the eye of the needle to riches and recognition.

Life is not a dress rehearsal - wake up every day excited to live out your purpose.

If I've been accused a number of times of writing plays where the endings are ambivalent, indeed, that's the way I find life.

In belief lies the secret of all valuable exertion.

Don’t worry," I said. "These men are good. They’re going to heal the world.

I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism.

I'm not an impersonator. I've only got one voice and only do one guy and his first-person essays.