Hungry children are distracted children. We want to make sure nothing gets in the way of our children performing well academically, including hunger.

I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina.

Even in a time of fiscal austerity, education is more than just an expense.

Borrowing to pay for college used to be the exception; now it's the rule.

Wherever you find something extraordinary, you’ll find the fingerprints of a great teacher.

In America, your zip code or your socioeconomic status should never determine the quality of your education.

We've seen more reform in the last year than we've seen in decades, and we haven't spent a dime yet. It's staggering how the Recovery Act is driving change.

Teachers support evaluations based on multiple measures: student growth, classroom observation and feedback from peers and parents.

To be clear, we the Department of Education want curriculum to be driven by the local level. We are by law prohibited from directing curriculum. We don't have a curriculum department.

The arts significantly boost student achievement, reduce discipline problems, and increase the odds students will go on to graduate from college.

Education is the civil rights issue of our generation.

I'd gladly stop working if someone can prove that stupid chatter will maake my day.

Getting to share the stories in my head with other people and have them enjoy those stories, and having them come to see my characters as real. That's so cool.

You can't turn a bad girl good, but once a good girls' gone bad, she's gone forever.

I've had a blessed career, and that has been acknowledged in many ways over the years.

A writer should bury his thoughts deep and convey them through the characters in his novel.

Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul.

I stand astonished at my own moderation

Let him that is without stone among you cast the first thing he can lay his hands on.

I have no interest in changing Hollywood. Hollywood is a place so consumed by the spirit of the world that I don't even want to try to think about how to infiltrate that.

Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all religions agree.