To an American, land is solidity, goodness, and hope. American history is about land.

Somewhere lives a bad Cajun cook, just as somewhere must live one last ivory-billed woodpecker. For me, I don't expect ever to encounter either one.

Be careful going in search of adventure - it's ridiculously easy to find.

Instead of insight, maybe all a man gets is strength to wander for a while.

Beware thoughts that come in the night.

...who can say where a voyage starts - not the the actual passage but the dream of a journey and its urge to find a way?

A true journey, no matter how long the travel takes, has no end.

Without the errors, wrong turns and blind alleys, without the doubling back and misdirection and fumbling and chance discoveries, there was not one bit of joy in walking the labyrinth.

On the old highway maps of America, the main routes were red and the back roads blue. Now even the colors are changing.

The biggest hindrance to learning is fear of showing one's self a fool.

I can't say, over the miles, that I had learned what I had wanted to know because I hadn't known what I wanted to know. But I did learn what I didn't know I wanted to know.

Encouragement is a mark of true friendship.

Our impartiality is kept for abstract merit and demerit, which none of us ever saw.

The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy.

It's interesting because what I do and what I sing is, to other people, pretty unique. I feel I'm creating my own path... and I'm working on growing as a performer.

I don't like to power trip, but when you're a boss you have to fight for certain things.

It's our job to first make ourselves feel better and then make ourselves feel good.

My coach, Liang Chow, had one rule while I was training for the 2008 Olympics: no skiing. I could do anything I wanted outside the gym, he said, except ski.

Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.

All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation.

Because French is the language of love, my boy. Something you should keep in mind, but will soon forget.