“It seemed to me that people do a rather good job of creating levels of hell all by themselves, and this was something worth writing about.”

“Many people have serious academic degrees but cannot find a job, and sadly their degrees are so limited that they cannot even think about how to create a job for themselves.”

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

“My wish has always been to write my own story, to create a life that’s worth writing about. But is a story worth anything at all if I have no one to tell it to?”

“Some persons can give themselves away to an ambitious pursuit and have that be all the giving-themselves-away-to-something they need to do. Though sometimes this changes as the players get older and the pursuit more stress-fraught. American experience seems to suggest that people are virtually unlimited in their need to give themselves away, on various levels. Some just prefer to do it in secret.”

“Odd people do good things. There are good and bad in all people and that’s why it’s worth appealing to the good in people. Some prickly characters do some great things and some quite affable and nice characters do bad things. We’re a mixed bunch, you know, and this is about human beings doing something great.”