A few rare individuals refuse to live limited lives. They drive through tremendous amounts of pain—from rejections and failures to shorter moments of embarrassment and anxiety. They also handle the small, tedious pain required for personal discipline, forcing themselves to do things we all know we should do.

Higher forces must be experienced directly, and that takes effort. That means you'll face the same stark choice I did: demand proof that you'll never receive, or use the tools in the face of your doubts. When I stopped thinking and focused on the tools, my reward was life changing faith.

It’s a paradox; only when you desire fear, will you be able to take action in its presence—which is what courage consists of.

Fear is almost always linked to an image you have of something terrible happening in the future. To develop courage, you have to give up this illusion of future certainty.

There’s a hidden, inner strength that you cannot find unless you push yourself through adversity.

“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too … raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.”

The Comfort Zone is supposed to keep your life safe, but what it really does is keep your life small.

Most of us choose avoidance instead. As a result, we don’t live up to our potential, never becoming fully ourselves.

The more intense the pain—and the more aggressively you move into it—the more energy you’ll create.

I don't believe there is any point in holding on to too many things in life.

The Democratic party is one that I've always observed. I have struggled greatly in life from the day I was born, and I am honored to be a part of something that focuses on working class citizens and molds them into a proud specimen.

My faith helped me stay grounded in defeat and victory, to not get too excited about the successes and too low about the failures.

It is as natural to die as it is to be born.

'Sherlock' fans are, by and large, an intelligent breed, so they've gone through my back catalogue and got what I've done, why and how I've done it. There is some obsessive behaviour, but I worry for them rather than me.

More than ever, we as parents and a nation must do something about the growth of obesity in our children. We must do more than just talk, we must be concerned enough to act.

We have very pretty Dutch gardens, so called, in America, but their chief claim to being Dutch is that they are set with bulbs, and have Delft or other earthen pots or boxes for formal plants or shrubs.

Stability is not immobility.

Eat all the junk food you want - as long as you cook it yourself. That way, it'll be less junky, and you won't eat it every day because it's a lot of work.

A meaningless statement remains meaningless no matter how often it's heard.

If you go into science, I think you better go in with a dream that maybe you, too, will get a Nobel Prize. It's not that I went in and I thought I was very bright and I was going to get one, but I'll confess, you know, I knew what it was.

An SF author who reads only SF will have little new to contribute, but someone with a broader experience will bring more to the table.

Development of space will improve life on Earth. Access to space is important for agriculture, humanitarian efforts, communications, and navigation.

My Barbies were usually naked. Once, I took their heads off, cut their hair, drew on their short, spiky hair with some markers, then stuck the heads on Christmas lights. Every year, we'd string our tree with those Barbie heads. It looked demonic. My parents were so cool - they saw it as a form of self-expression.

I have my permanent muses and my muses of the moment.

India brings out so many different feelings in me. I've been fascinated with India and Indian culture as long as I can remember - ever since the '60s with the Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

My dad's a jeweller, and my mom works for a bank.

Envy is the art of counting the other fellow’s blessings instead of your own.

I think the new generations in America, the America's youth, no longer care about Vietnam. They don't want to hear any more about it.

My dad's the one who's always been there; he's my hero, you could say. Even when he was working, he'd do anything for me. He's been the biggest influence in my life.

If you don't believe you don't belong.

The fact that we elected Obama was a sign that the black struggle inherent in the blues and so much of the music I have loved can triumph.

It is the essence of genius to make use of the simplest ideas.

I find age such a foreign concept. I have to be reminded. I still have the extraordinary feeling of adventure, striking out into unknown fields.