To make someone an icon is to make him an abstraction, and abstractions are incapable of vital communication with living people. - David Foster Wallace

It is a fact of life that certain people are corrosive to others' self esteem simply as a function of who and what they are.

You can be shaped, or you can be broken. There is not much in between. Try to learn. Be coachable. Try to learn from everybody, especially those who fail. This is hard. ... How promising you are as a Student of the Game is a function of what you can pay attention to without running away.

Betraying her class and origin with the heartbreaking openness Joelle's always viewed as either terribly stupid or terribly brave