“Sometimes I surprise my own damn self.”

I like to be against the odds. I’m not afraid to be lonely at the top. With me, it’s just the satisfaction of the game. Just performance.

Every pitcher can beat you, it doesn’t matter how good you are.

I don’t know if steroids are going to help you in baseball. I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe steroids can help eye-hand coordination and technically hit a baseball.

My career is an open book, but my life is not.

I don’t know if the record is going to happen. I don’t really think about the record. There are other things I worry about.

Serra High school, to me, was my most enjoyable time for me in my entire life. That was the only time I was free. We just played baseball because it was fun.

There is nothing better than walking out and hitting a home run.

I have a chef who makes sure that I’m getting the right amounts of carbs, proteins and fats throughout the day to keep me at my max performance level.

I think everyone needs to be a role model, period.

If you want to be on top, you’ve got to have broad shoulders, because as fast as you get there, the faster they try to knock you down.

I think some of the pressure comes from the expectations of other people. Like if your father played baseball, they expect you to be the big lifesaver or something when you play a sport.

I’d like to help educate kids about the Major Leagues – what to anticipate, what to expect, what they’ll need to do to prepare themselves.

I like to be against the odds.

I never stop looking for things to try and make myself better.

Those boos really motivate me to make something happen.

Baseball is just my job.

I bear witness, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to worship Thee. I testify, at this moment, to my powerlessness and to Thy might, to my poverty and to Thy wealth. There is none other God but Thee, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.

Discover that we are capable of solitary joy and having experienced it, know that we have touched the core of self.

Learn the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest.

Power is sexy, not simply in its own right, but because it inspires self-confidence in its owner and a shiver of subservience on the part of those who approach it.

All dreams appear impossible until somebody makes them happen.

Just practice good, do good for others, without thinking of making yourself known so that you may gain reward. Really bring benefit to others, gaining nothing for yourself. This is the primary requisite for breaking free of attachments to the Self.

Happiness for the average person may be said to flow largely from common sense – adapting one-self to circumstances – and a sense of humor.

Overall, one of the things that excites me most about self-publishing is that the highest-value use of my time in promoting the books will be found in writing more of them.