I try not to have personal goals. Personal numbers is a mind-set. The only numbers I care about are in the win column.

I've discovered there is another life besides baseball. You have to be balanced to be a happy person.

I try to stay on an even keel. I get really fired up on occasion, but staying relaxed and under control bodes better for my game than getting out of control.

I don't feel any pressure when I'm up there at the plate. I feel it when I'm in the on-deck circle, but when I'm in the box, it's just me and the pitcher, and I get zoned in.

Obviously, success breeds more confidence. And it's pretty easy to be confident if you're getting a hit almost every time at bat.

If making an error doesn't make you mad, what's the point? Why put all the work in?

You're not always going to be perfect, but I always try to be.

I'm not comfortable being that outgoing guy. That's not me. I never used to talk to anybody.

My mother was the biggest influence on me, without question.

I'm still very critical of myself, but I've learned to deal with it. You know that every at-bat is important, but it's not life and death.

You can't change your game based on where you're playing.

She's fire. But she won't burn you... she knows all too well, how it feel to live with ashes.

Crook your finger

Very few problems cannot be solved by either coffee, wine or chocolate.

This struggle of people against their conditions this is where you find the meaning in life.

Love built on beauty soon as beauty dies.

Don't judge a book by its thickness either.

It is the government's strong desire to empower this fabric, this social fabric of our society where faith-based programs large and small feel empowered, encouraged, and welcomed into changing lives.

Put your sins in the chalice for the precious blood to wash away. One drop is capable of washing away the sins of the world.

Is this level of athletic competition the ultimate distraction from real life? Or is it a form of prayer?

We walk alone through this world, but if we're lucky, we have a moment of belonging to something, to someone, that sustains us through a lifetime of loneliness.