My parents were very loving, but disciplinarians.

I don't run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run toward it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet.

I ended up in the US for a month or so, before moving to Montreal with some Romanian friends.

When you fall, leap to your feet and try again.

My marriage to my husband, Bart Conner in 1996 is my proudest personal moment.

One of the most difficult times in my life was when I escaped from Romania in November of 1989.

Of course, I grew up in Communist Romania, but I am happy to say that now our country is democratic, and prospering, since the revolution in 1989.

Work hard for your goals and live in the moment.

Jump off the beam, flip off the bars follows your dreams, and reach for the stars

Romanians have a saying, 'Not every dog has a bagel on its tail.' It means that not all streets are paved with gold. When I began my career, I just wanted to do cartwheels.

I believe that you should gravitate to people who are doing productive and positive things with their lives.

Clear, unscalable, aheadRise the Mountains of Instead, From whose cold, cascading streamsNone may drink except in dreams.

Paradise A concept embraced by almost every culture. A land of peace and harmony. Some say it doesn't belong to the earth, that there is no Shangri-la, no utopian wilderness for the living.

I don't know that we teach it. I don't know that we emphasize it... I understand the philosophical background behind it, but I don't know a lot about it, and I don't think others know a lot about it.

Every vice makes its guilt the more conspicuous in proportion to the rank of the offender. [Lat., Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se Crimen habet, quanto major qui peccat habetur.]

I was discouraged about life, discouraged about people being blind, but I don't think I had a day that I ever questioned creativity. There has never been a day like that.

With 300 Marines you could probably take over Iraq if you wanted to and get rid of ISIS completely.

Bigotry is ever the child of ignorance, and the cultivation of the understanding is the only radical cure for it.

Queen Elizabeth, who said, Not now, I'm on the throne. Never got a dinner!

Groups are grammatical fictions; only individuals exist, and each individual is different.

I don't want people to be afraid of health or illness or mortality, because it's a natural part of life.