I so enjoy being old because for the first time I don't have to do anything-work, teach, study. I feel very good about myself-and at my age I can say no to anything now if I don't want to do it. What a liberating word.

And that's it; that's why I want to teach; that's the one and only compensation: to make a permanent difference in the life of a child.

Children are the true connoisseurs. What’s precious to them has no price, only value.

People ate bread made of the shells of peas because there was no flour.

Education can't make us all leaders, but it can teach us which leader to follow.

But if there is such a thing as social commitment in literature, I think it must manifest itself in a reader's awareness of the human condition, in the writer's touching some common nerve ending. I think this kind of social commitment, like a lady's slip, should be there but it must not show.

The preciousness of every moment is emphasized with every tick of the clock. Isn't it a magnificent day today?