I've spent my whole life learning how to do things that were hard for me.

When everyone at school is speaking one language, and a lot of your classmates' parents also speak it, and you go home and see that your community is different -there is a sense of shame attached to that. It really takes growing up to treasure the specialness of being different.

I am growing to love DC. But the core of Sonia is a New Yorker.

Until we reach equality in education, we can't reach equality in the larger society.

I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences. Today is one of those experiences.

I hope in my book [My Beloved World], that the sense that I really feel connected comes through.

Don't let fear stop you. Don't give up because you are paralyzed by insecurity or overwhelmed by the odds, because in giving up, you give up hope. Understand that failure is a process in life, that only in trying can you enrich yourself and have the possibility of moving forward. The greatest obstacle in life is fear and giving up because of it.