"The most important role models should and could be parents and teachers. But that said, once you're a teenager you've probably gotten as much of an example from your parents as you're going to."

"There are 80 million moms in the United States. Forty million stay at home with their children."

"I'd never been a teacher before, and here I was starting my first day with these eager students. There was a shortage of teachers, and they had been without a math teacher for six months. They were so excited to learn math."

"I have amazing friends who have led inspirational lives."

"In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher."

"It is not easy to imagine how little interested a scientist usually is in the work of any other, with the possible exception of the teacher who backs him or the student who honors him."

"I went through this phase where I thought pink and purple matched. To dance class, I'd wear purple tights and pink leg warmers and paint my shoes purple. It was really odd."

"The library was open for one hour after school let out. I hid there, looking at art books and reading poetry."