After a while, the fear became a habit, too.

You don't feel like smiling? Then what? Force yourself to smile. Act as if you were already happy, and that will tend to make you happy.

What made something precious? Losing it and finding it.

When you mention to people growing up in Cleveland they bring up the river catching on fire, or LeBron James leaving, they have these references, but no one imagines ending up there.

I would never tell myself, you have to write 20 pages today or something. But I do try to show up. Read what I wrote, fix things.

If you told people you were moving to Ohio, they wouldn't congratulate you. They'd say "OH WHY would you move there?" as if that was something that happened to you and you had to deal with.

They never discussed it, but both came to understand it as a promise: he would always make sure there was a place for her. She would always be able to say, Someone is coming. I am not alone.

I think this is something that is naturally built in in people, a need for attention and a need to be special and we are always trying to find a balance.

I am in a mixed race marriage myself, and I have a mixed race son....The racial perception interest is probably always going to be there to some extent.

Being asked, "Where are you REALLY from?" It makes one feel OTHERED.

There is something about Midwest in general, that has kind of an underdog quality.

God wants you to always have a hunger in your heart to learn something new.

The tragedy of this age is that many are hungry for the wrong reasons

Maturity is when you stop complaining and making excuses and start making changes.

The signs are just not subtle enough to pass onto oversight in lieu of self preservation.

She ignores me, so I cup my hands over my mouth and do something I haven’t done in years— barnyard sounds.

Air Canada. That's a good name for a Canadian airline.

I still give myself the right to be highly critical of others, though.

In order to be a good soldier it is necessary to know how to dance.

How does any idea come to your mind? I don't know.

If the earth does grow inhospitable toward human presence, it is primarily because we have lost our sense of courtesy toward the earth and its inhabitants.