While the importance of a strong brand is widely understood, nothing is as misunderstood in American business as the question of how to use it.

Brand is everything, the stuff you want to communicate to consumers and the stuff you communicate despite yourself.

The truth is the best brands, like the most interesting people, have a keen sense of self.

Good brands do three things for highly stressed out consumers: 1. They save time. 2. They project the right message. 3. They provide an identity.

Every brand builder will face a million temptations to obscure, dilute, or confuse his or her brand message. These temptations fall under two general headings: boredom and the desire for growth.

A strong brand is the only thing that can tip the balance of power between distributors and a manufacturer back into the manufacturer's favor.

Finding an excuse not to buy a brand can be just as enjoyable as finding an excuse to buy one. That, too, is human nature.

Do not allow your enemy to define you. Because if you allow yourself to be defined negatively, nothing positive you say about yourself will register.

It's not fair, but it's not entirely wrong to presume that the more capable people will come from the better brand.

A business based on brand is, very simply, a business primed for success.

The real lesson Orville (Redenbacher) taught me was the power of a good brand to trump all rhyme or reason in the marketplace.

All my life I have been reading romance novels. Those stupid books ruined me. I've always wanted that fire that every book I ever read talks about.

Banks are run by executives, and executives protect themselves, and that does not always mean that banks are going to behave rationally.

God knows the angel's wings must have been over us in view of the terrible mortality in all other camps up an down this line which seemed to be being built in bones.

The man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything.

Having cancer gave me membership in an elite club I'd rather not belong to.

You don't treat cancer - you fight it.

I have so much to do today, I'll need to spend another hour on my knees.

My parents have always been cool. They even became surrogates to friends of mine who didn't have such supportive parents.

Online, you have things like Slate Magazine, which has a lot of commentary and analysis of stories, so it gives you a fuller picture. I would compare that to a news magazine or the New Republic.

Happy are the painters, for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end of the day.