A writer writes for writers, a non-writer writes for his next-door neighbor or for the manager of the local bank branch, and he fears (often mistakenly) that they would not understand or, in any case, would not forgive his boldness.
Get the winners into the game.
It's not the will to win that matters-everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters.
But there's one thing about quitters you have to guard against - they are contagious. If one boy goes, the chances are he'll take somebody with him, and you don't want that. So when they would start acting that way, I used to pack them up and get them out, or embarrass them, or do something to turn them around.
Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boys don't forget them when they leave.
You win games with your strengths, not your weaknesses.
Motivating people- the ingredient that separates winners from losers.
When I see you, the World stops. It stops and all that exists for me is you and my eyes staring at you. There's nothing else. No noise, no other people, no thoughts or worries, no yesterday, no tomorrow. The World just stops, and it is a beautiful place, and there is only you.
And that is what radio-activity is, a quick return to the state of rest which underlies the spiritual or invisible universe.
Our Scottish theory. . . is that every country has need of Scotchmen, but that Scotland has no need of the citizens of any other country.
I'm ambivalent about the Orange Prize. I was really proud to be shortlisted alongside the other writers, whom I admire. That said, I don't know if it's best way of addressing gender inequality problems.