Part of what Special Olympics is trying to do is break down stereotypes that still exist for people. There is still a lot of fear.

Perfectionism doesn't make you feel perfect. It makes you feel inadequate.

Make time in your life to listen to your own voice. Do not let it get drowned out by others. Your voice is yours and yours alone. Stay in touch with it and use it.

My definition of success? Being the kind of woman that I would want to have as a friend.

Pausing allows you to take a beat to take a breath in your life. As everybody else is rushing around like a lunatic out there, I dare you to do the opposite.

Our mothers give us so many gifts. They give us the precious gift of life, of course, but they also leave treasured lessons that can guide us along our journeys even when they are no longer with us.

When the world is so complicated, the simple gift of friendship is within all of our hands.

We all obsess about what we are doing and accomplishing. What if we let it go and simply made the way we live our lives our accomplishment?

Art is fundamental, unique to each of us...Even in difficult economic times - especially in difficult economic times, the arts are essential.

It takes time to get to the top, and that's good - because by the time you get there, you'll have learned what you need to know in order to stay there.

Don't wait until you are perfect to change the world.

None of us start out strong ... And none of us have the exact same strengths.

On the other hand, I think cats have Asperger's. Like me, they're very smart. And like me, sometimes they simply need to be left alone.

True happiness ... arises in the first place from the enjoyment of one's self and in the next from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

There is plenty of work for love to do.

Live with honor and follow your conscience.

When we had the girls, my daughter Jenny gave us like a Bible from my daughter of, "Don't feed them this; don't feed them that, if she says this, don't say that," It was crazy!

Food history is as important as a baroque church. Governments should recognize cultural heritage and protect traditional foods. A cheese is as worthy of preserving as a sixteenth-century building.

Conscience represents a fetich to which good people sacrifice their own happiness, bad people their neighbors'.

When you're running, when you're in elected office, you're surrounded with power. And, so every single day, you have to remind yourself why you're here, and that people put you here for a reason.

I grew up counterculture. I'm essentially a hippie, and I'm essentially a folkie.