dangers, to Francisco, were merely opportunities for another brilliant performance; there were no battles he could lose, no enemies to beat him.

Shall I tell you the difference between you and your statue? No. But I want to. It's startling to see the same elements used in two compositions with opposite themes. Everything about you in that statue is the theme of exaltation. But your own theme is suffering. Suffering? I'm not conscious of having shown that. You haven't. That's what I meant. No happy person can be quite so impervious to pain.

Have you ever noticed that if there's a hard way and an easy way, you choose the hard way every time? Why do you think that is?

Don't let your failures define you.

Beneath the layers of hurt, beneath the ragged laughter, I heard a willingness to endure. Endure—and make music that wasn't there before.

As she spoke, her voice never wavered; it was the voice of someone who has forced a larger meaning out of tragedy. Or

The road we have taken to this point has not been easy. But then again the road to change never is.

The trick is not caring that it hurts.

Sometimes you were just screwed, and the best you could do was have a stiff drink—and light up a cigarette.

I reminded myself that every president felt saddled with the previous administration's choices and mistakes, that 90 percent of the job was navigating inherited problems and unanticipated crises. Only if you did that well enough, with discipline and purpose, did you get a real shot at shaping the future.

There can be no greater spiritual accomplishment than to come through brutal trials and then look back and see that mean times did not render us mean spirits.

At the time, I thought my life couldn't get any worse. Here's some advice: Don't ever think that.