I didn’t write professionally at first. It took me nine years to get anything published. At the beginning I mostly wrote picture books, which were rejected by every children’s book publisher in America. The first book of mine to be accepted for publication was ELLA ENCHANTED, and not one but two publishers wanted it. That day, April 17, 1996, was one of the happiest in my life.

This is my fourth final and I just hope to enjoy myself and play my game. Previously I haven’t been able to do that in finals. It’s great to meet the No.1 player in the world, it will be a good experience for me.

The coolest thing for me is the experience of floating and not feeling my weight. And hanging by a window just after sunset and watching the stars in the big black dome of the sky as the earth moves underneath.

2018 was magical for me as far as IPL is concerned.

From the stage, I can reach a large audience, and you learn from being on stage how much a song reaches, what extent of the crowd a song can reach. I write in a way that can reach most of the audience, but I also wanted to have truly intimate moments as well, many intimate moments, more so than the big moments.

When I finally held the trophy, it was just how I imagined it would be.

No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone.

There’s no point in making predictions. It’s not worth speculating because nothing is set in stone and things change all the time in football. Today there are opportunities that no one knows if they will come round again in the future.

The scholar does not consider gold and jade to be precious treasures, but loyalty and good faith.

Some moments are nice, some are nicer, some are even worth writing about.

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.