You want the book to be special, and they are not always going to be special, but at least you want that to be the ambition. So the only way that happens is if you are not pressing to write a book.

Baseball is this intense subculture that actually doesn't speak very much for the larger culture.

The pleasure of rooting for Goliath is that you can expect to win. The pleasure of rooting for David is that, while you don’t know what to expect, you stand at least a chance of being inspired.

As idiotic as optimism can sometimes seem, it has a weird habit of paying off.

When you're trying to create a career as a writer, a little delusional thinking goes a long way.

In Japan, mothers insist on achievement and accomplishment as a sign of love and respect. Thus to fail places children in a highly shamed situation.

A banking system is an act of faith: it survives only for as long as people believe it will.

Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck — and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your Gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky.

A credit default swap was confusing mainly because it wasn't really a swap at all. It was an insurance policy, typically on a corporate bond, with semiannual premium payments and a fixed term.

One absolutely cannot tell, by watching, the difference between a .300 hitter and a .275 hitter. The difference is one hit every two weeks.

People don't like uncertainty, and their minds are tools for making sense of the world, even when the world is senseless.

Get the kNACk of being you by getting the NAG out of you. Find out how in Chapter 5.

There was still no likelihood that we could make a living from dance. We were doing it because we loved it... We realized how full we felt

When I am not king, then THE Kingdom has its best chance of breaking through.

Who cares about great marks left behind? We have one life.... Just one. Our life. We have nothing else.

If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.

I have to do a better job of minimizing the damage in that inning and getting us back in there with the lead still.

Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.

Don't tear other people down. Lift people up.

I think, in the longer view of things, there is a very powerful pull in the direction of participatory government.

I desperately want a dog, but I've been told I travel too much, and I'm not allowed to have a dog.