We have to compete within ourselves relative to the determination it takes to be successful.

There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment.

Success doesn't come from pie-in-the-sky thinking. It's the result of consciously doing something each day that will add to your overall excellence.

Becoming a champion is not an easy process... It is done by focusing on what it takes to get there and not on getting there.

What happened yesterday is history. What happens tomorrow is a mystery. What we do today makes a difference - the precious present moment.

We're not going to talk about what we're going to accomplish, we're going to talk about how we're going to do it.

One thing about championship teams is that they're resilient. No matter what is thrown at them, no matter how deep the hole, they find a way to bounce back and overcome adversity.

Live by the creed that a strong work ethic, playing by the rules, and doing things the right way will bring about opportunities for success and, ultimately, happiness.

Focus on the process of what it takes to be successful.

Mediocre people hate high achievers, and high achievers hate mediocre people.

I don’t care what you did yesterday. If you’re happy with that, you have bigger problems.

I write to make sense of my life."-John Cheever, quoted in _Cheever - A Life_ (2009) by Blake Bailey

If life is what you make it, the building blocks are your desire and your passion.

Believe me, religions are on the wrong track the moment they moralize and fulminate commandments. God is not needed to create guilt or to punish. Our fellow men suffice, aided by ourselves.

Don't be sucked in by the su-superior, don't swallow the culture bait, don't drink, don't drink and get beerier and beerier, do learn to discriminate.

People begin to write in order to create what they have not found and, a little bit, to give something back.

Learning another language is like becoming another person.

No man has any influence or power for good when angry.

The Sopranos all came down to the writing. I wouldn't have been on for as long as I was if the writing weren't so good.

I haven't found one place in the world yet where I could disappear.

I wouldn't say music is my passion, or my calling, or anything like that. I mean, I don't really believe in that kind of stuff. Life is a series of chance happenings, so I just fell into it.