“When you say yes to something you don’t want to do, here is the result: you hate what you are doing, you resent the person who asked you, and you hurt yourself.”

“Filtering the people we allow into our lives is probably the most important factor in determining whether we will live a happy life or not. Because if we let the wrong people in, we will be drained, and if we are drained, how can we expect to have abundance or creativity?”

“There’s a story about Joseph Heller, the author of Catch-22, finding himself at a party made up of a bunch of Wall Street hedge-fund managers. A man comes up to him and points to a young guy in his 20s. The man says, “See that guy over there? He made more money last year than you will make in a lifetime of writing your books.” Heller turns to the man and says, “I have one thing that he will never have.” The man laughs and says, “What?” Heller says, “Enough.”

“Nothing ever happened that I predicted at three in the morning. I’ll say it again: Nothing I ever predicted at three in the morning ever came true. Ever.”