I have a lot of things to prove to myself. One is that I can live my life fearlessly.

When I chased after money I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life then I was prosperous.

There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.

Truly I never thought of myself as writing legal thrillers and I still don't think I do. I write stories about women.

She never envisioned a legal career for me but she did think it was very important that I be able to support myself and I think she would be pleased to see what has become of me.

In high school I discovered myself. I was interested in race relations and the legal profession. I read about Lincoln and that he believed the law to be the most difficult of professions.

I was myself brought up with my brother whose name was Matthias for he was my own brother by both father and mother and I made mighty proficiency in the improvements of my learning and appeared to have both a great memory and understanding.

I count myself as one of millions of Americans whose life simply would not be the same without the libraries that supported my learning.

I think the biggest thing was that I was putting pressure on myself leading up to Beijing. Now I am learning how to take that pressure off and seeing this as an incredible opportunity but not like 'I absolutely have to medal.'

I took the process of doing as much myself as I could like a duck to water. I set up my own label and publishing etc and it was a fun learning curve two decades ago.