Writing fiction is for me a fraught business an occasion of daily dread for at least the first half of the novel and sometimes all the way through. The work process is totally different from writing nonfiction. You have to sit down every day and make it up.

According to the Small Business Administration more than 70 percent of all family businesses do not survive through the second generation and 8 percent do not make it to a third.

We have in this country a federal government that increasingly is engaged in trying to determine which business which regions which industries will succeed which will not through a whole range of economic development regional development corporate subsidization programs.

After I left the White House I kept a foothold in the business of American politics as a talk-show host analyst commentator speechmaker and occasional writer. I was no longer a practitioner but I was still a partisan a Democrat a blue-stater through and through.

You know every family and every business in California knows what it means to go through tough times.

Death is a billion-dollar business. They can't even pass a law where it takes seven days to get a gun. Why don't you have to go through the same kind of screening you do to get a driver's license? It's totally insane.

Integrate purpose into your for-profit business model through a long term commitment to a cause that is aligned with your core values and those of your community.

After hurting myself like that I could not go back immediately to racing. I was in no condition mentally or physically. That helped me to strengthen myself to go through the hard times that were ahead with my business and to be successful.

We're not uncomfortable with it and we've already been through enough of the music business where I'm not really worried that commercial success is going to in some way - we're already past saving you know what I mean? It's too late for us.

I started out mopping floors waiting tables and tending bar at my dad's tavern. I put myself through school working odd jobs and night shifts. I poured my heart and soul into a small business. And when I saw how out-of-touch Washington had become with the core values of this great nation I put my name forward and ran for office.