pep-talk

Too many people in this world think small is the best they can do. Not you, Libby Strout. You weren't born for small! You don't know how to do small! Small is not in you!

Wait, that__ your idea? That__ your expert advice? You__e going to tell these novelists to just keep going? You__e going to tell these honest, earnest writers: You gotta have faith? Those are George Michael lyrics, asshole. If they wanted that pep talk, they could just hang out inside a mall elevator.

Aspire to do anything, start something and stop at nothing.

Back in my day, which was about a week and a half ago, we took our lumps and we got back up and we cried like babies and quit and then put on weight.

DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME, JEZEBEL! DON'T YOU DARE! Or I'll follow you to the next world and KILL you.

Just forget for a minute that you have spectacles on your nose and autumn in your heart. Stop being tough at your desk and stammering with timidity in the presence of people. Imagine for one second that you raise hell in public and stammer on paper. You__e a tiger, a lion, a cat. You spend a night with a Russian woman and leave her satisfied. You__e twenty five. If rings had been fastened to the earth and sky, you__ have seized them and pulled the sky down to earth

Find your fucking balls, Mitch, and reattach them!

Real optimism is not the pep talk you give yourself. It is earned through the labor involved in emotional housekeeping.

Story telling or teachable moments, provides us with a vast reference base of real life antidotes for possible future problems. They not only entertain and give us a resource of proven solutions, but they also help shape and mold our character. Therefore, when we don__ take our time to communicate with our kids, then we rob them of critical life lessons that we and our forefathers learn the hard way - lessons that they would needlessly have to learn through trial and error themselves.