When I call myself an affirmative action baby, I'm talking about the essence of what affirmative action was when it started.

If you're poor, you don't often live near a good school. If it's a competitive public school program, our kids are not prepared to enter those programs.

I honestly felt no envy or resentment, only astonishment at how much of a world there was out there and how much of it others already knew. The agenda for self-cultivation that had been set for my classmates by their teachers and parents was something I'd have to develop for myself.

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

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

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.

A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.