There's nothing glorious about being a professional. . . . Professionalism probably comes down to being able to work on a bad day.

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

Khomeini has offered us the opportunity to regain our frail religion ... faith in the power of words.

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.

Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.

America is a hurricane, and the only people who do not hear the sound are those fortunate if incredibly stupid and smug White Protestants who live in the center, in the serene eye of the big wind.

I was thinking that surgeons had to be the happiest people on earth. To cut people up and get paid for it-that's happiness, I told myself.

Love asks us that we be a little braver than is comfortable, a little more generous, a little more flexible. It means living on the edge more than we care to.

Reaching consensus in a group is often confused with finding the right answer.

I knew people were talking, but I wasn't listening. I wasn't interested in anything anyone had to say.

It takes a decade to grow a tree, and it takes more than one generation to shape the right mindset.

It is more important to prove something to yourself than to prove it to others!

To sustain longevity, you have to evolve.

The imperative need of this nation at all times is the leadership of Uncommon Men or Women.

I like the immediacy of blogs and the democratizing effects of letting millions of voices bloom on the Web.

My constant prayer, my number one foreign goal, is to bring peace to Israel. And in the process to Israel's neighbours.

I wasn't in a position to defend myself. Sometimes it's a brutal profession. The first thing I thought of at the time was revenge. I have a more levelheaded take on the issue today.

I had dreams of catching the ball for the final out in the World Series and being mobbed by my teammates. Well, I guess all my dreams didn't come true.

The only thrill worthwhile is the one that comes from making something out of yourself.