“I'm lucky I had some teachers who saw something in me.”

“I wanted to be a teacher, but I was a lousy student, one of the slowest readers. It was a tremendous struggle. But I'm lucky I had some teachers who saw something in me.”

“I get stubborn and dig in when people tell me I can't do something and I think I can. It goes back to my childhood when I had problems in school because I have a learning disability.”

“I do not think about being beautiful. What I devote most of my time to is being healthy.”

“The best way to get most husbands to do something is to suggest that perhaps they're too old to do it.”

“It's really important that as women we tell our stories. That is what helps seed our imaginations.”

“We tilt our heads back and open wide. The snow drifts into our zombie mouths crawling with grease and curses and tobacco flakes and cavities and boyfriend/girlfriend juice, the stain of lies. For o...”

“The teachers complain that the students today are all lazy, ignorant, and stupid. But the truth is that you're smarter than they are. You're not even old enough to drive and you already know that n...”

“I told her about school and how I sat on a wall there and felt stories and words move through me ...”

“You see, in this country are a number of youths who do not like to work, and the college is an excellent place for them.”

“Sometimes the gap between what you are and what you want to be is a little piece of paper called your college degree. So jump.”

“I only want to write. And there's no college for that except life.”

“Some of the greatest journeys of humankind are those that, at the time being, only the one living it understands.”

“The greatest success is how much impact was made”

“The greatest policy is where there are no policies!”