What I love about design is the artistic and scientific complexity that also becomes useful.

Gardening has increased, community gardens have increased significantly. There are 50 percent more community gardens right here in Washington DC.

Find people who will make you better.

Truly 1 percent of this country serves and protects the freedoms of the other 99 percent of us, so many of us don't have that connection. Fortunately, Jill Biden does. She's a blue-star mom. Their son was in the National Guard - or is in the - in - is a Reservist.

I grew up on the south side of Chicago in a working class community. There were no miracles in my life, there's nothing miraculous about how I grew up, and I want people to know when they look at me, to be clear that they see what an investment in public education can look like.

I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life who taught me about quiet strength and dignity.

The president [Barack Obama] asked for a commitment of, I think, 100,000 jobs for veterans and military spouses over the next couple of years. And we announced during the tour last week that we have gotten more than 60,000 jobs, and we're well on our way to just crashing that goal out of the water, because what businesses are understanding is that these men and women are some of the most highly trained resources that we have in this country.