“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” ~ Diane Ackerman, author of A Natural History of the Senses

“Life is like a jail with an unlocked, heavy door. You’re free the minute you realize the door will open if you simply lean into it.” ~ Scott Adams (Dilbert creator)

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

“No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.” ~ Helen Keller

“Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.” ~ Frederick Wilcox

“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” ~ William Faulkner

“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut

“Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must first set yourself on fire.” ~ Fred Shero

“I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” ~ Shannon Hale