"Whatever you do big or small, do it well or don't do it at all."

“Criticism is part of being in the marketplace. If you can't take a bit of criticism, you shouldn't bother publishing a book.”

Source : "Better than Amis?" by Stephanie Merritt, www.theguardian.com. August 31, 2003.

“Humor is the good natured side of a truth.”

“No matter how much you're expecting it, it's still unexpected when it comes.”

“I never wanted to feel I hadn't worked hard enough.”

Source : "'92 Olympian Yamaguchi balances road, family" by Suzanne Riss, www.cnn.com. February 23, 2010.

“And starward drifts the stricken world, Lone in unalterable gloom Dead, with a universe for tomb, Dark, and to vaster darkness whirled. (“The Testimony of the Suns”)”

Source : George Sterling, “The Testimony Of The Suns”

“Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands.”

“Give the best you have received from the past to the best that you may come to know in the future. Accept life daily not as a cup to be drained but as a chalice to be filled with whatsoever things are honest, pure, lovely, and of good report. Making a living is best undertaken as part of the more important business of making a life. Every now and again take a good look at something not made with hands-a mountain, a star, the turn of a stream. There will come to you wisdom and patience and solace, and above all the assurance that you are not alone in the world.”

“I would rather be called funny than pretty.”

Source : "Live From" with Kyra Phillips, www.cnn.com. April 9, 2004.