Be real. Try to do what you say, say what you mean, and be what you seem.

You can't tell parents to teach children the value of work when we don't have jobs and the jobs we have don't pay a decent wage. You can't tell children to achieve and then let them go to broken-down schools with teachers who don't care. We need a consistency of values in our public, corporate, and private lives.

I'm sure I am impatient sometimes. I sure do get angry sometimes. I think it's outrageous how hard it is to get this country to feed its children and to take care of its children, to give them a decent education.

A nation that does not stand for its children does not stand for anything and will not stand tall in the future.

Don't just dream about grandiose acts of doing good. Every day do small ones, that add up over time to positive patterns.

If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much.

The legacy I want to leave is a child-care system that says that no kid is going to be left alone or left unsafe.