“People don’t stop eating, and they don’t stop drinking coffee.”

You also have to research your competition.

I motivate others by making sure that they understand to go after their dreams and dont let anyone tell you you cant. If you are motivated enough and put the work in that you can achieve anything in life that you set your mind to.

You can’t get AIDS from a hug or a handshake or a meal with a friend.

I think you just have to keep knocking down doors, you have to keep being aggressive, and even if somebody says ‘No’, then you have to knock on the next door.

When I first found out I had HIV, I had to find somebody who was living with it, who could help me understand my journey and what I was going to have to deal with day-to-day.

Jealousy is invariably a symptom. Just like right now with the whole mortgage crisis, I want to help people get back into their homes.

We are a company that lives and breathes a philosophy that’s centered on not only making sound business decisions but also personally and professionally finding ways to contribute to the well being of society.

I love business. I love helping urban communities grow. I love putting people to work of color. I love making sure – like right now the whole mortgage crisis, I want to help people get back into their homes.

I wanted to do two things when I was growing up, about your age. I wanted to play in the NBA, and I wanted to be a businessman after my basketball career was over, and that is what I am doing now.

Even as a fierce competitor I try to smile.

When you face a crisis, you know who your true friends are.

I love coming to work. I never have a bad day.

Most people who are healthy, and I’m healthy, can’t even live my life.

I love to be in the ballpark. I love to just go in and enjoy a great baseball game, a great pitchers’ duel.

A lot of black guys always ask me, ‘Did Larry Bird really play that good?’ I said, ‘Larry Bird is so good it’s frightening.’

If people around you aren’t going anywhere, if their dreams are no bigger than hanging out on the corner, or if they’re dragging you down, get rid of them.

I still think the best classic meal in New York is a coffee-shop breakfast – you sort of can’t skip it.

I feel that I’d rather know an actors’ work, or have an instinct about them and sit down and have coffee with them, or I’ll see them in something and I’ll see if I can get along with them in some way, shape, or form.

I don’t like soccer. I think it makes you soft. And by the way, you telling me it’s the biggest whatever in the World, look, they drink tea everywhere too; they’re pussies, you understand? I want some coffee.

The coffee shop is a great New York institution, but it has terrible coffee. And the more traditional coffee shops are trying to catch up with more sophisticated coffee drinkers.

You know you’re going to get it, but it’s going to be rough.

Going to Starbucks for coffee is like going to prison for sex.

You can’t have a decent food culture without a decent coffee culture: the two things grow up together.

For me, the beauty of the blank page, or empty screen,staring up at nine thirty after two cups of coffee and a deep breath remains unique.