Since my retirement, I've spent a lot of time trying to help the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina. A society like this just can't afford an uneducated underclass of citizens.

The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.

When we become a really mature, grown-up, wise society, we will put teachers at the center of the community, where they belong. We don't honor them enough, we don't pay them enough.

It was cold out there, bitter, biting, cutting, piercing, hyperborean, marmoreal cold, and there were all these Minnesotans running around outdoors, happy as lambs in the spring.

Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students.

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.

...Pomeranians speak only to Poodles and Poodles speak only to God.

It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.

There are a lot of people who are doing wonderful things, quietly, with no motive of greed, or hostility toward other people, or delusions of superiority.

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.

The sparrows are preparing for winter, each one dressed in a plain brown coat and singing a cheerful song.

Impending doom, it was a familiar sweater, we all wore it and as scratchy as it felt against our skin, we kept it on.

A household can never appear prosperous without a cow. How auspicious it is to wake up in the morning to the mooing of your own cow!

When I lose direction, it becomes very hard to write. I actually get a physical pain, as if my subconscious knows better. That may sound mystical and pretentious, but it's true.

I'm not tied to any particular political line.

Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose.

India is a civilization where the principle and philosophy of sacrifice is ingrained as part of our upbringing.

Faith as tiny as a grain of sand allows us to move mountains.

Everything bad has... you know, has a good.

There aren't a lot of movie star males around my age that I can play opposite.

I'm not like a poker player. I'm not into bluff. My way is to look someone in the eye and tell them the way I'm intending to go. My cards are always on the table.