After college, I was burdened with student loans to repay, no financial cushion, so I wasn't in a position to bet everything on a creative-writing career - neither the writing-workshop academia life nor the freelance-writer version, trying to scrape by on short stories and house-painting gigs.
There's another way we are getting behind business - by sorting out the banks. Taxpayers bailed you out. Now it's time for you to repay the favour and start lending to Britain's small businesses.
I was just grateful for the fact that I was able to repay my parents for their sacrifices throughout my career.
We owe our World War II veterans - and all our veterans - a debt we can never fully repay.
The men and women on the front lines of the war on terror continue to risk their lives to save ours - and for that we owe them a debt that we can never truly repay. Thanks to their efforts we have made tremendous progress. Yet, the job is not done.
I have three adult children, and I have four grandchildren. I want to stop the deficits. I want to make sure that we're not passing on to my children and my grandchildren deficits and that we cannot repay and that they will have to repay and maybe they won't be able to repay them.
Although we can never fully repay our veterans, on Veterans Day we thank our veterans for their selflessness and commit to do what we can to improve the quality of life for our veterans and military families in communities across America.
I think I owe thanks to the people who have listened to me over the years, who tuned in on the radio. They have given me a warmth and loyalty that I've never been able to repay. The way they have reached out to me has certainly been the highlight of my life.