Often times I'm confronted with a quote that I don't remember saying. So, on one hand it's very flattering, it is just so surreal.
As for goals, I don't set myself those anymore. I'm not one of these 'I must have achieved this and that by next year' kind of writers. I take things as they come and find that patience and persistence tend to win out in the end.
American society as a whole can never achieve the outer-reaches of potential, so long as it tolerates the inner cities of despair.