With my academic achievement in high school I was accepted rather readily at Princeton and equally as fast at Yale, but my test scores were not comparable to that of my classmates. And that's been shown by statistics, there are reasons for that - there are cultural biases built into testing, and that was one of the motivations for the concept of affirmative action to try to balance out those effects.

[On the desert:] The wind was a constant, and when you paid attention, it seemed like the earth's own breathing.

If I go home, get a gun, come back and shoot you, that may not be legal under New York law because you would have alternative ways to defend.

Although wisdom is built on life experiences, the mere accumulation of years guarantees nothing.

I am willing to bet that there are some Puerto Ricans who don’t know about [their status].

Recalling the aftermath of her father's death from alcoholism at age 42, this memoirist reminisces: I couldn't deny that our life was so much better now, but I did miss him. For all the misery he caused, I knew with certainty that he loved us. Those aren't things you can weigh or measure away. ... They're not opposites that cancel each other out. They're both true at the same time.

Remember that no one succeeds alone. Never walk alone in your future paths.