Chinese workers are not forced into factories because of our insatiable desire for iPods. They choose to leave their homes in order to earn money, to learn new skills, and to see the world.

Just because a person spends her time making a piece of something does not mean that she becomes that - a piece of something.

The past has been there all along, reminding us: This time--maybe, hopefully, against all odds, we will get it right.

A person cannot grow up through happiness. Happiness makes a person shallow. It is only through suffering that we grow up, transform, and come to a better understanding of life.

True education makes you beautiful like a butterfly, but it demands a transformation.

Why did it take the threat of dying to truly notice how exquisite a sunrise or sunset could be?

Ideas devour the ages as men are devoured by their passions. When man is cured, human nature will cure itself perhaps.

I was working in a family business-the fur business - and I hated it. I was reading the New York Times want ads, and I saw a photographer's assistant job in Vogue. Things went from there.

No child really chooses his religion; it is just the luck of the draw which blanket of beliefs you are wrapped in.

Keep your eye on eternal goals

The gardener does not make a plant grow. The job of a gardener is to create optimal conditions for growth

Most composers and arrangers these days use computer programs and keyboards, but I'm one of those dinosaurs that still writes it down on score paper and still dreams it up in his ear first.

He who spares the bad injures the good.

The bond between mother and baby is so interesting. Women have been giving birth since the beginning of time, but when it happens to you it feels like a miracle.