To me, there is no more conscientious umpire in the Major Leagues than Jim Joyce. He gives you a hellacious effort every time.

I'm a great believer in the character of the club. To me, character has a lot to do with how you compete. That creates urgency and toughness. That elevates the talent that you have.

Even when you have three strikes, you're still not out. There is always something else you can do.

Pressure comes when someone calls on you to perform a task for which you are unprepared.

Play the game right. If you play the game intelligently and execute the fundamentals, you can win.

It's like most anything. If you want to be a loser, there's always a way to dwell on the negative. If you want to win, there's always a way to think positively.

Just because you're down to your last strike, you're not out yet. You can always do more. You'll always have more at-bats to take. That's true in baseball, in rescuing animals, and in life generally.

Toughest thing for me as a young manager is that a lot of my players saw me play. They know how bad I was.

We never quit trying. I know that's kind of corny, but the fact is we never quit trying. The dugout was alive even when we were behind. And sometimes it works.

There are always distractions, if you allow them.

Anything that disturbs your comfort factor is good for you.

Our scars make us who we are. Some scars are just deeper than others.

Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.

Fiction is love and hate and agreement and conflict and common adventure, not lonely musings on have-beens and might-have-beens.

If you want a player to serve and volley more, you need to teach them to do that more, how to move at the net.

Every friend is to the other a sun, and a sunflower also. He attracts and follows.

I think in reading a few sentences of text you can just tell the tone, and that's something I love in prose writers.

I can't see any advantage to fame. I'm happy with the life I have now. I've got the same two friends I've had since I was 12, and I can't see that changing.

Stay strong. Stand up. Have a voice.

I think it's less risky for the Kerry campaign to embrace former President Clinton than it is to reject him.