"I'm a risk taker, so I have come to accept that at times I will fail. To me, that is better than not trying at all."

“All they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with a rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.”

Source : Billy Collins (2014). “The Apple That Astonished Paris: Poems”, p.58, University of Arkansas Press

“You have to pay the price - but if you do you can only win.”

“I played didgeridoo from a young age - on the vacuum cleaner, initially.”

“There is no substitute for hard work when it comes to achieving success.”

“I was so afraid to even read a paper in front of my classmates. It is very funny because at that point my teachers would never have believed that I could speak in front of an audience of over 2,000 people.”

Source : "How supermodel Petra Nemcova's tragedy changed children's lives" by Hermione Hoby, www.theguardian.com. March 12, 2011.

“Work, finish, publish.”

Source : Michael Faraday, F. James (1999). “The Correspondence of Michael Faraday, Volume 4: 1849-1855”, p.942, IET

“Any startling piece of work has a subversive element in it, a delicious element often. Subversion is only disagreeable when it manifests in political or social activity.”

“Those of us placed in a position of leadership must be prepared to grasp the nettle if we unite in doing so, and if, in addition, we set a worthy example and a marat on pace in probity, unselfishness, and self-sacrifice, the people will follow, all too readily, in our footsteps.”