You know, if you hang around this earth long enough you really see how things come full circle.

I had this odd sibling rivalry with America.

I don't think it's an accident who our parents are; I believe we choose them. So maybe I chose my parents in order to effect change.

Life Lesson 3: You can't rush grief. It has its own timetable. All you can do is make sure there are lots of soft places around - beds, pillows, arms, laps.

Even if the Bush Administration had flung open the gates to stem-cell research years ago, we would not be at the point of offering treatment today. Christopher Reeve would still have been taken from us. But we would be closer.

That is your legacy on this Earth when you leave this Earth: how many hearts you touched.

And as far as false hope, there is no such thing. There is only hope or the absence of hope - nothing else.