Part of the problem is that people at our school don't listen. They just put on the headphones and tune out the world. It's intimidating.

Although she was gregarious, she inadvertently separated herself from people because she was so often inside her own head, focusing on her creativity.

I figure I'll win the fight in twenty years or so anyways when I end up with a decent life and their unemployed and living at home.

In the minds of their peers, too often students become caricatures of themselves.

Studies have shown that, at least among students, popularity equals visibility.

If teachers are uncomfortable at their own school, they will pass on their uncertainties or negative attitude to students.

Being an outsider doesn't necessarily indicate any sort of social failing. We do not view a tuba player as musically challenged if he cannot play the violin.

The 1970s, fewer than 25% of US residents lived in counties in which the presidential candidate won by landslide. 30 years later, that percentage has nearly doubled.

He didn't realize that simply by mingling among various lunch tables, he was befriending people in different crowds, weaving together the fringes of the cafeteria.

The cafeteria made him feel like an observer rather than a participant in the high school experience.

How could he encapsulate in a pithy admissions-interview line all of his unique ideas and interests?

What is writing, after all, except fumbling in darkness endeavoring to light a candle?

I had a dream about you last night. In this dream we were walking down the beautiful Japanese streets of Florida. Fukuoka is nice in the summer.

To be able to have the space to sit down and write has always been my central policy.

I need to not be scared of not having someone there to back me up. I just need to tackle things on my own. I feel like I have the power in me to make it work.

There is no finish line. When you reach one goal, find a new one.

I would say to women, always question what you're empowering yourself for and what are you claiming power for.

I know the Haitian people because I am the Haitian people.

Each girl is special-one of a kind-a child of God, and each must be taught to live his commandments in order to inherit his eternal blessings.

If you do not know how to care for money, money will stay away from you.

If you wander with open eyes and simple curiosity, you'll discover a much richer pleasure - the simple feeling of possibility that hums from every direction as you move from place to place.