I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let's face it, friends make life a lot more fun.
I have spent the greater part of my life in a hotel room with seven or eight kids, looking after everyone, sorting out fights, wiping noses, handing out towels, not having a clean towel left for me.
Our ability to handle life's challenges is a measure of our strength of character.
We're all here for a limited amount of time, and life is difficult - not unfair, but difficult. The key is to really confront our fears because when we do, and when we look at them, we really begin to realize that we are capable of handling them.
We don't have real control over death. You could die of a heart attack, a building could fall on you, you could be in an accident, you could have a fatal disease. So, how should you conduct your life? You just go ahead and live, taking reasonable precautions - like handling the mail more carefully.
For me that's one of the great indulgences in life - a hand-tailored suit, and a great pair of handmade shoes.
At Year Up, our students - low income 18-24 year olds - come to us having already faced substantial obstacles in life. They are not in search of a handout; what they want most of all is the ability to take ownership of their own futures.
No, I think it taught me to be independent and never expect a handout and never wait for anybody to hand you anything in any aspect of my life.
The only thing I understand deeply, because in my teens I was thinking about it, and every year of my life, is software. So I'll never be hands-on on anything except software.
Seeing my father's handwriting puts me in contact with the man he was at each stage of his life.
Once you have been through a certain amount of things in life, you definitely grow more comfortable with yourself. To persevere and hang in there and believe in yourself.
My parents led this double life. They were in the underground movement to bring down the Nazis. My father was hanged for being a traitor.
If a man had more than one life, I think a little hanging would not hurt this one; but after he is once dead, we cannot bring him back, no matter how sorry we may be; so the boy shall be pardoned.
When things are difficult, awful, stressful, the thing that always gets you through is a sense of humour. I don't mean - well, maybe I do - laugh at the hangman as he puts the noose around your neck. But an eye, an ear, for the ridiculous, the absurd in life, can get you through a lot.
Everything about Hank Williams interests me. His music, his life. His death. His impact.
My purpose in life does not include a hankering to charm society.
'Sunrise Sunset' is about trying to get to a place where life is simple and not letting the stress and happenings in the world get in the way of your happiness.
I am sure that the sad days and happenings were rare, and that I lived the joyous and careless life of other children; but just because the happy days were so habitual to me they made no impression upon my mind, and I can no longer recall them.
Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
The older you get, the more you realise how happenstance... has helped to determine your path through life.
