My newfound motivation had me feeling confident in my ability and I headed to Mackay with a plan.

I didn't let what I wanted to do become a made up memory that I looked back on years down the road and wished it was real.

Honestly, if I stay on this gruelling path, I'm going to end up as another suicide statistic.

I must have appeared like a real bad boy in Christy's eyes. Well, at least a bad boy by home and away standards.

It wasn't a glorious or grand act of misadventure but it was a start. It wasn't what I should have done but it was what I truly wanted to do.

A fight needs at least two fighters. Sometimes you can win straight away by not fighting.

Someone who lives vicariously will never be truly happy because they're not happy with themselves.

If you're not happy with yourself, how can you even begin to figure out if another person makes you happy, annoyed, angry, sad and so on.

This is your chance. Are you going to cower and make excuses or are you going to do what you really want to do?

It seemed, at that point, my greed and cunningness were being rewarded.

She'd been fed anti-consumerist bullshit by her parents but didn't understand simple economics.

Challenge each problem you face with purposeful thought and determined action. Resolve that 'every' situation you encounter will make you better, stronger, wiser, more skillful and more loving.

People assume that computers will do everything that humans do. Not good. People are different from each other and they are all really different from computers.

As you make your bed, so you must lie in it.

Mr. McVicker instilled self-respect in those of us who were his students, because he respected us regardless of our background.

The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.

"Like a Rolling Stone" [of Bob Dylan] is a kiss-off song like none before or since.

Our faces were no more than ten inches apart but she was lightyears away from me.

Do you know what my father used to say?" I ask her. "He used to say that songs had a heart. A crescendo that can make all your blood rush from your head to your toes.

When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all.

Though logic-choppers rule the town, And every man and maid and boy Has marked a distant object down, An aimless joy is a pure joy.