Familiarity is the most destructive of all iconoclasts.

Much of the rest of the world has already learned some English. They pretty much understand the American way of doing things, because our culture has been ubiquitous and has been the 500-pound gorilla in the global economy. But the world is far more interrelated than ever before, and no one culture can thrive without the knowledge of how to function in other cultures.

I have the students for six hours a day. The community has them for 18 hours, plus prenatal and early childhood. I don't believe the schools create (the achievement gap), but our responsibility is not to add to it. We won't eliminate the gap until the community makes education a priority, but the schools can't wait for the community to do its part.

Winter does adversely affect [the roads] and our roads have been let go, so they're more and more porous. We're going to have to put more and more emphasis on permanent patch and maintenance, so I expect a great deal of roads breaking up in the spring.

Most airlines move too fast in a merger. Speed is not as critical as efficiency.

Most people - and particularly people whose lives have nothing to do with books at all - are intrigued by the idea that somebody wants to listen to them and get it right.

Some idea of inflation comes from seeing a youngster get his first job at a salary you dreamed of as the culmination of your career.