“people are working harder than ever, but because they lack clarity and vision, they aren’t getting very far. They, in essence, are pushing a rope...with all of their might.”

“People think doping is for lazy people who want to avoid hard work. That might be true in some cases, but in mine, as with many riders I knew, it was precisely the opposite. EPO granted the ability to suffer more; to push yourself farther and harder than you'd ever imagined, in both training and racing.”

“Once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That's it. And what's more, the people at the very top don't work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.”

“People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.”

“If you are here because you think writing will always be fun, you're in for a disappointment. Writing -- real writing -- is among the most difficult work you will ever face in your life. The irony is that the harder you work at it, the harder it gets.”

“Art is very tricky because it's what you do for yourself. It's much harder for me to make those works than the monuments or the architecture. ”