Professor Al Drake encouraged me to just write the way I talk. I decided if that's what I needed to do, I didn't need to be in school to do it.

In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.

They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.

The difference between an optimist and a pessimist? An optimist laughs to forget, but a pessimist forgets to laugh.

I come from very common stock, and I've always been uncomfortable with pretension and all the forms it can take, including disingenuous broadcasting.

You can make a new friend but you can't make an old one.

That's what the American odyssey is really about: Leaving home. Leaving home and coming home, and trying to understand the difference.

In the America I see from here, anything is possible - especially the impossible.

Mine is not a story to tell struggling writers.

Americans are generally very self-sufficient and I think generally averse to pretension, just as I am.

Like most Alaska immigrants, my roots continue to petition for equal time.

Those who are acquainted with failure acquire the unique ability to dare without fear of it.

I know who I am: a great soul.

Doing more for others makes your life more abundant.

Nothing needs a war. There is no problem that needs a war to bring it to a resolution.

I've been blessed in so many ways.

We need to move from the leader as hero, to the leader as host.

Whats in the movie compared to what we shot is the tip of the iceberg.

If you're reluctant to weep, you won't live a full and complete life.

You don't run out on people; you run out on yourself.

Why do people take notice of first snowfalls but not the last days of snow? Remember the last too.