Congratulations to my friend Lewis Burke Frumkes on the publication of his new book Favorite Words of Famous People, in which people such as Hillary Clinton, Yo-Yo Ma, Norman Mailer, Muhammad Ali, Jamie Malanowski and about 250 others discuss their favorite words. ( I know, I know: how the hell did I end up in that sentence? Blame it on Lewis–he picked me!) For the record, Clinton picked “love”; Ma picked “genuine” and “incredible”; Mailer chose “resonance”, “dread” and “presence”; Ali picked “The Greatest,” natch. I picked “yes,” which is a word of “intimacy, enthusiasm, agreement, permission, encouragement, excitement, vision, and triumph. `No’ is a necessary word, wise to the world viicissitudes. Most of the world’s troubles come from a failure to say `no’ at the right time, but most of my regrets come from not having the courage to say `yes’ more often.”
