If it isn't a clear yes, then it's a clear no.

Essentialism: only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.

Take a deep breath. Get present in the moment and ask yourself what is important this very second.

Discern the vital few from the trivial Many.

Done right, a strategic intent is really one decision that makes 1,000 decisions.

I think we are in a non-essentialist bubble—everything seems important—so of course nothing is.

Remember that if you don’t prioritize your life someone else will.

Play stimulates the parts of the brain involved in both careful, logical reasoning and carefree, unbound exploration.

I think we’ve been oversold the value of more and undersold the value of less.

We often think of choice as a thing. But a choice is not a thing. Our options may be things, but a choice—a choice is an action. It is not just something we have but something we do.

The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away-it can only be forgotten.

I think of myself as a positive agnostic. I don't know, therefore I'm open. I don't know, therefore I'm interested.

Trust is a product of test over time.

So at some point you realize that your life is not just going to start one day in the future, that you're living it.

The Trojan War without Homer was nothing more than a battle over trade routes.

My folks were English . . . we were too poor to be British.

I don’t have to win. I just have to make you lose.

I have never been able to wear a hat. My hair is peculiar in that it grows so fast that any hat I put on instantly leaps from my head.

God writes the story of our lives with the pen strokes of our own free choices.

Acting has been my lover and best friend. My confidant and my tormentor. It has given me support and broken my heart and mended it.

An idea you have might not be original. But by creating a novel out of that idea you can make it original.