It is absurd to imagine that any child will be able to earn a living, let alone contribute to resolving our world's complex problems, without knowing how to read and write. My foundation supports the National Writing Project so that teachers can be more effective in their efforts to improve literacy for all students.

I can promise you that women working together - linked, informed and educated - can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet.

Empowering women means trusting them.

As my Popo used to say, life is a tapestry we weave day by day with threads of different colors, some heavy and dark, others thin and bright, all the threads having their uses. The stupid things I did are already in the tapestry, indelible, but I’m not going to be weighed down by them till I die. What’s done is done; I have to look ahead.

He was not oppressed by a crowd because in the midst of all the hullabaloo he always found a quiet place for his soul.

Someone has said that conversation is sex for the soul.

Be careful what you ask of Heaven; it might be granted.