Overcoming hardships and working around and through their obstacles to achieve an education is what I call a true success.

I really would not change anything. Have a passion for what you do, work hard, have great people with good personalities, enjoy the ride.

Some family trees bear an enormous crop of nuts.

My father always said working for somebody else never amounted to anything. You have to be an entrepreneur

The good things take care of themselves. We want to find all the negatives.

I'm not leaving until you say yes.

I'm going to miss Blockbuster. I'm gonna miss being CEO and all that stuff. We had an atmosphere where everybody was happy. When people make money, they're happy.

Despite winning the world championship, it has not altered the reality of the situation.

Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.

I don't buy cars I can't drive.

They say, poetry is dead. I say, was there ever a time they had a clue of what the state of poetry is?

I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them.

Fortunately, as we all know, it's impossible for anybody but Jimmy Smith to really sound like Jimmy Smith.

It was actually fun to write [memoir], because I went back to interview people my parents had taught or who had worked with them, and I learned a lot about them that I hadn't known.

How sad the world is, so beautiful yet so absurd.

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.

It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.

Why do we have to wait for special moments to say nice things or tell people we care about them?

I believe that we live in a "return to sender universe" - what you send out is exactly what you will get back.

The only sure way to maturity is through pain.