“I think it doesn’t matter if you are the best surfer in the world. I’m going to try to be the best surfer I can be. It’s not all about competing and being the best. It’s more about having fun and just doing what you love.”

To lose your everyday life of surfing and being creative on waves, enjoying the ocean – that’s scary to me. It was essential to at least try surfing again and get out there and see how it went.

God will give us the strength to be able to handle things. I mean, you can try to do it on your own, and sometimes you can pull off some stuff, but in the long run, it’s much easier with Him by our side.

Compassion can drive us to do amazing things and give us perspective.

Like, with one arm I know I can surf, but competitive surfing can be really frustrating, and sometimes you don’t do as well as you want to. It can be discouraging at times. But whenever I do get frustrated, I just focus on God.

It’s hard for me to describe the joy I felt after I stood up and rode wave in for the first time after the attack. I was incredibly thankful and happy inside. The tiny bit of doubt that would sometimes tell me you’ll never surf again was gone in one wave.

It’s been amazing to touch people’s lives.

My favorite thing [about surfing] is being creative on waves; it’s like an art form. You can do whatever you want on that wave if you work hard at it and just have fun out there.

Your looks do not define who you are.

Losing an arm is kinda lame at one point, but at the same time, so much good has come out of it.

The author describes how impressed she was with the detailed storyboards that outlined her movie – “not just sketches, but real art”. She then describes a Hawaiian sunset as, “God painting His storyboard on the sky”.

You don’t need easy, you just need possible.

Surfing for me is more than my lifestyle; it’s my passion, my love and it’s a part of me.

Being creative on the waves is challenging, but we each create art in our own way.

I guess I just like to challenge myself and push myself harder to do things that I dont think I can, to do things that other people do not think I can. It pushes me. I push my own personal limits.

Surfing is very special and unique. It’s really hard to explain unless you’ve tried it. It’s being out in the ocean in the sun, the water on your skin, and the adrenalin rush when you catch a wave. You have to be creative so it’s like an art form in a way.

I’m just waiting for God to tell me what to do, but whatever it is, I want to be doing something like I am doing now-serving God and helping people.

Television is 15 hour days. Movies are 18 hour days. And it’s 18 hours of doing not a thing.

If I’m not in the theatre, I’m in an open mic night or doing a guest set at the Comedy Club, or whatever, just trying to develop stuff.

Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.

If I were not a writer, I would spend more time doing the things that I am already doing, which include doing research in physics, teaching, and running a nonprofit organization with a mission to empower women in Cambodia.

In success there’s a tendency to keep on doing what you were doing.

Our disrespect for thinking: someone sitting in a chair, gazing out of a window blankly, always described as ‘doing nothing’.

I never used to take holidays and it would upset ex-wives and girlfriends, but working has me in a better mood than doing nothing.

I believe in not attacking a country pre-emptively unless you’re sure of what you’re doing and you’re working with allies.