The historic beauty of BJJ rests not with its ability to allow a smaller man to maim a larger man, but with its ability to allow any man of any size to survive.

The words he said, too, must be human enough to bleed.

A poet could kill the dead.

Poets, like fighters, both reap the benefits of roadwork.

I’ve learned to fall like the BJJ player, to protect the body through controlling the distribution of force by slapping the mat with hands open. With hands open. Hands open. Open. O Pen.

Stories do not change, only the lives they live in do.

Like forearm veins, my interests spread in different directions and eventually led to the hands, to writing.

If pain is a pot of boiling water, humor can be the rising steam.

It’s cool when fashion recycles itself, it’s not cool when sustainable living does because it means there was (and is as I write) a period of absolute and possibly irreversible destruction.

Fights begin and end with handshakes.

How can I stand before you in silent symbols with open palms?

In business or in life, don't follow the wagon tracks too closely.

I have to tell you, I'm a great teacher. Ask anybody who worked for me, except some secretaries who weren't very good.

Another misconception is that an order is canceled when you hit 'cancel' on your computer. But, the fact is it's canceled only when the market gets the cancellation.

I don't know how long I'll be competing but I'll always be surfing. I'll be surfing until I'm old.

Language has no independent existence apart from the people who use it. It is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end of understanding who you are and what society is like.

Put the walls up. Get the better walls. There's no reason the army website should be hacked.

Campaigns waged with lies presage governments racked by distrust. The sclerosis starts there.

God is not an encyclopedia whose task is to satisfy our curiosity.

When we suffer we have made it into a personal affair. We shut out all the suffering of mankind.

Finally, we need more Border Patrol agents. Although Congress has already tripled the number of Border Patrol agents since the late 1980s, more are still needed.