Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

Former Olympians also get paid to make appearances. Many of them won their medals in an era when Olympic success didn't go hand-in-hand with financial success.

People repeat behaviour that leads to flooding their brains with pleasurable chemicals. The short-term reward loop acts over hours to years and the long-term reproductive success loop over generations.

We had maybe the greatest success of any company that I know of in Paris and after two or three years I wanted to do this same number that we did for PBS so we did it and Paris had always considered us their darlings.

The fame of heroes owes little to the extent of their conquests and all to the success of the tributes paid to them.

Success tempts many to their ruin.

But Big Oil and Big Coal have always been as skilled at propaganda as they are at mining and drilling. Like the tobacco industry before them their success depends on keeping Americans stupid.

Look if you ask a child 'Would you rather have a fulfilled mother or a stay-at-home Sylvia Plath ' they'll pick Sylvia Plath every time. But I think it's really important that children don't feel their parents' emotional lives depend on their success.

I think the success of a talk show depends on how true it is to the personality of the person hosting it. The shows I really admire like 'Oprah' and 'Ellen ' are distinctively like their hosts so I think my show will be successful only if we try to stay consistent to my own sense of myself.

When I meet successful people I ask 100 questions as to what they attribute their success to. It is usually the same: persistence hard work and hiring good people.