And what if I fail?" "Ah! Then you'll have a story to tell.
If I hadn't met those two guys (Billy Martin and Whitey Ford) at the start of my career, I would have lasted another five years.
During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.
It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life.
A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide.
I leaned on him for support when I got out of the cab, and he just crumpled to the ground. That's how we found out.
Somebody once asked me if I ever went up to the plate trying to hit a home run. I said, 'Sure, every time. '
It seemed more and more like something out of a children's book - the butterfly that followed the little girl all the way home to her fifth-floor walk-up. How above-the-law children's books are. Hansel and Gretel (littering, breaking and entering), Rumpelstiltskin (forced labor), Snow White (conspiracy to commit murder), Rapunzel (breach of contract).
I think scrin writers like to see how people bring their words to life, and it's always surprising. Always, no matter what, whether it's good or bad, it's always surprising because a whole human being is coming to that piece of writing. And certainly there's inspiration that comes out of that.
Meditation, in all its forms and traditions, is an invitation to listen, to open, to quietly enlist the courage to be touched and formed by life.
I don't take myself terribly seriously. It's why I can be incredibly honest about my life.