We all have to have more rigorous expectations of our kids in America.

We've lost our competitive spirit. We've become so obsessed with making kids feel good about themselves that we've lost sight of building the skills they need to actually be good at things.

That should be the goal, is that every kid in every neighborhood, despite whatever challenges they may face, are getting a great education in our public schools.

I think that one thing that people are missing is that we are never going to be able to fix this country's [American] economy in the long run until we fix our public education system.

Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don't know how to read, I don't care how creative you are. You're not doing your job.

We are always going to put the best interests of kids above the rights, privileges and priorities of adults.

If you grew up in a lower-income community, or less well-off, the belief is that the way to change that circumstance is through education.

An education reformer is as important in America as the first lady.

I'd rather deal with anger than apathy.

Poverty is so significant that we can't expect to overcome the impacts of poverty in schools.

You may not do well, necessarily, up front, and in order to be the best, you've got to work hard.

In the process of letting go, we create abundance.

If I could sleep with my arms around you, the ink could stay in the bottle.

Knowledge, learning, is an eternal thing.

If there were an honorable way to get rich, I’d do it, even if it meant being a stooge standing around with a whip. But there isn’t an honorable way, so I just do what I like.

Take care not to wear stripes that are out of sync with your wrinkles.

England will still be England, an everlasting animal, stretching into the future and the past and like all living things having the power to change out of all recognition and yet remain the same.

I love all animals. I have a fascination with fish, birds, whales - sentient life - insects, reptiles.

One of the hardest things we must do sometimes is to be present to another person's pain without trying to "fix" it, to simply stand respectfully at the edge of that person's mystery and misery.

Adopt the character of the twisting octopus, which takes on the appearance of the nearby rock . Now follow in this direction, now turn a different hue.