I've always been an avid reader. If I don't have a book in the car, I'll stop and pick one up just to have something to read. I don't even remember learning to read.

At the end of the day, all you can hope for is to go on. The older I get, the more I realize that just keeping on keeping on is what life's all about.

Dreams were all they gave for free to ugly duckling girls like me.

Libraries are a hallmark of a civilized culture, and librarians represent that culture to all facets of society.

There will always be those people who are just backward and ignorant. There will always be those people. They need somebody to feel superior to.

It's neat to have finally reached a point where I can accept what I was and what I am.

I love seeing teachers outside of school. It's like seeing a dog walk on its hind legs.

The best thing you can learn from the worst times of your life is that it always gets better. It may take a month, a year, a decade, but it will get better if you leave yourself open to it.

I learned the truth at seventeen, That love was meant for beauty queens, And high school girls with clear skinned smiles, Who married young and then retired.

I think I grew up, stopped worrying about what people thought of me, and whether things were going to turn out OK. I'm concentrating on doing the best work I can do and letting it go at that.

Once you're halfway home, you know that you can probably get the rest of the way there.

A deaf and dumb in the mist of morons is a renowed talkative among brains.

You really can have your dreams and at the same time have a family. But it has to be a really deliberate practice.

He's written some great songs. I thought that "Blues Man" was a perfect song for me to do as a tribute.

In an interview, former vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan said he does not have a racist bone in his body. However, he admitted he has three sexist bones and his spine is homophobic.

For me to propose a division of Jerusalem was really terrible. I did it because I reached a conclusion that without which there will not be peace.

The prophesying business is like writing fugues; it is fatal to every one save the man of absolute genius.

I'm certainly going to support Al Gore because, on the whole, he's the more sensible figure and you vote not for the perfect but for the best. Coupled with that is a special situation.

If we stop to apologize and forgive each other every time we step on each other’s toes, we’ll never have time to be friends.

My road to publishing actually came through a colleague who connected me to my agent, and the faculty at Cornell was very supportive.

What good would politics be, if it didn’t give everyone the opportunity to make moral compromises.