Violence was just as much about WHAT was happening as it was how it happened.

Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity. What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?

When I began to read, I began to exist

Cutting people out of your life is easy, keeping them in is hard.

We need to tell young people that America was built by men and women of all colors and that the future of this country is dependent on the participation of all of our citizens.

Reading is not optional.

I'll never live to write all the stories I have in my head.

We need to tell kids flat out: reading is not optional.

Think about all the tomorrows of your life.

We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it's this wonderful adjunct.

It's a hard life sometimes and the biggest temptation is to let how hard it is be an excuse to weaken

To satisfy a want or a need, you must first go for it

My mother said "You won't amount to anything because you procrastinate." I said "Just wait."

I learned to play (baseball) on the streets in the Dominican Republic when I was 8 yrs old.

Have unconditional love to your children no matter what happens. Give them time even in the midst of this busy life - be one on one with them.

The best thing in life aren't things.

By way of personal instinct, I have an inherent distaste for grandiose rhetorical statements, which don't have any substantive dimension to them

After desolation, grief brings back our humanity.

I don't like a lot of rehearsing.

Unless a man learns how to create, he never becomes a part of existence, which is constantly creative. By being creative one becomes divine; creativity is the only prayer.

I firmly believe that the next great breakthrough in bioscience could come from a 15-year-old who downloads the human genome in Egypt.