It's one of the amazing things about owning a football club, the way you get caught up. It's like someone has put something in your coffee. You look around, you want to lift the place, hit the ground running.

I can't stress how much my daughter is an inspiration to stay sober. When I come home and she opens those big blue eyes at me, it's the most amazing feeling I could ever feel.

I am definitely a Type A personality, always rushing around, trying to do too much, not good at just lying on the beach. But I'm so thankful for everything I have: wonderfully supportive parents and sisters, the best husband in the world, terrific students I love teaching and hanging out with, and above all, my two amazing daughters.

For me, it was an amazing experience. I saw where my father came from. I was given a royal welcome in El Bireh - they even slaughtered a sheep in my honor.

My mother was the most amazing person. She taught me to be kind to other women. She believed in family. She was with my father from the first day they met. All that I am, she taught me.

I was given such a great gift. It's a miracle that never stops amazing me and reminding me to give thanks, every day. Having a wife and daughter gives me a lot more purpose. I was much more selfish before, but now I think about what kind of role model I'll be. I just want to be a better man.

Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.

Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light.

It would have been better to do what everyone else does, neither taking life too seriously nor seeing it as merely grotesque, choosing a profession and practicing it, grabbing one's share of the common cake, eating it and saying, "It's delicious!" rather than following the gloomy path that I have trodden all alone; then I wouldn't be here writing this, or at least it would have been a different story. The further I proceed with it, the more confused it seems even to me, like hazy prospects seen from too far away, since everything passes, even the memory of our most scalding tears and our heartiest laughter; our eyes soon dry, our mouths resume their habitual shape; the only memory that remains to me is that of a long tedious time that lasted for several winters, spent in yawning and wishing I were dead

I didn't plan on either children or writing. Once I realized that writing satisfied me in some enormous way, I had to make adjustments. The writing was always marginal in terms of time when the children were small. But it was major in terms of my head. I always thought that women could do a lot of things. All the women I knew did nine or ten things at one time. I always understood that women worked, they went to church, they managed their houses, they managed somebody else's houses, they raised their children, they raised somebody else's children, they taught. I wouldn't say it's not hard, but why wouldn't it be? All important things are hard.

Champagne arrived in fl?tes on trays, and we emptied them with gladness in our hearts... for when feasts are laid and classical music is played, where champagne is drunk once the sun has sunk and the season of summer is alive in spicy bloom, and beautiful women fill the room, and are generous with laughter and smiles... these things fill men's hearts with joy and remind one that life's bounty is not always fleeting but can be captured, and enjoyed. It is in writing about this scene that I relive this night in my soul.

The problem is acceptance, which is something we're taught not to do. We're taught to improve uncomfortable situations, to change things, alleviate unpleasant feelings. But if you accept the reality that you have been given- that you are not in a productive creative period- you free yourself to begin filling up again.

"As a child, I read because books?violent and not, blasphemous and not, terrifying and not?were the most loving and trustworthy things in my life. I read widely, and loved plenty of the classics so, yes, I recognized the domestic terrors faced by Louisa May Alcott's March sisters. But I became the kid chased by werewolves, vampires, and evil clowns in Stephen King's books. I read books about monsters and monstrous things, often written with monstrous language, because they taught me how to battle the real monsters in my life.

I am simply of the opinion that you cannot be taught to write. You have to spend a lifetime in love with words.

Life has taught me one great lesson with time. We increase by giving away and decrease by taking away. Takers never prosper!

HOW TO LIVE AND HOW TO BEHAVE, THAT IS WHAT OUR PARENTS TAUGHT AND THAT IS WHY WE HAVE LEARNED TO LIVE IN THIS WORLD TODAY.

Dealing with the death of loved one is always difficult. No matter how much we know of death, of the process of Life, no amount of preparation to accept death is sufficient. When death comes calling in our circle, we are always caught struggling to cope. Immersing yourself in celebrating the Life of the one you lose is one better way of coping. In celebration, there is an uplifting energy. It helps you to look back at each moment you can recall with the person you lost and relive them. Or support causes they supported. Through these acts you heal yourself, you train your mind to let go and move on. It is a slow process, but it works. Important, don't try to fight your sadness. It is futile. Sadness is a natural response. Feeling sad is integral to the process of dealing with a loss. Instead understand your sadness, go its root, understand its futility...and then pluck it and discard it...

"At sea, the darker the night the closer you will get to your past. The music you decide to play is the radio dial of your history. Van Morrison's "Have I Told You Lately" played as I stared at the setting moon. This is a song that always transports me to a New Hampshire backroad of my youth. Her name was Katie. She was tall, blond, and wore the girl next door look like an angel. She was smart, funny, and kind. She infatuated me from the moment I met her at Wentworth Marina. She was the daughter of two well-to-do doctors from upstate New York. It was her plan to sail around the world, and she wanted me to join her. "Just to mate" she would always say with a wink.

"Pain, mistakes, failure, heart-stompingness, embarrassment, rejection, frustration, anger, loneliness, and occasionally feeling alienated are all part of the ride and are every bit as important as love, laughter, joy excitement, success, romance, hope, accomplishment, and trust.

I am grateful for my struggle because it made me who I am today. It also taught me there is nothing that I can't do and nothing is impossible, as long as I am willing to try as hard as I can.

I believe it'll happen ? one way or another." Naiche looked around at the room full of friends and family. "If life has taught me one thing ? and let's face it, it hasn't taught me much more than that?." Over Con's chuckles, she continued, "?it's that as long as you're still breathing, there will be plenty of chances coming your way. The trick is being smart enough to grab the right ones.

If life has taught me anything, it's don't ever assume. Nail it down. Get things clear.

When you face a heart break or caught your partner doing wrong things. You are hurt, not because what your partner did. But you are more hurt, because of what you did for them and all the sacrifice you made.

She taught me how some people need a hundred words to express a single thought, while some people only need one word to share a hundred thoughts.