Poverty makes it very difficult in an already competitive world for kids to get on a straight track where they can actually love learning.

I think we need leadership that helps us remember that part of what we are about is caring about more than the person right next to us, but the folks across the way.

I call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators "the haute couture of language."

Suddenly in high school, I'm in a predominantly Jewish atmosphere. Jewish people were my gate to white America.

Some people study a text very deeply. The people are my text. I study their words and what their words sound like, over and over again.

I'm interested when things are upside down - because there are so many possibilities in that one moment. There is a lot that is exposed.

Then everyone leaves, and you are left, each night, to your own devices with a crowd of interesting people - most of whom you don't know - sitting in the dark.