We at the Department of Education are going to provide technical assistance; I've committed $14 million to show states how they might meet this more sophisticated approach.

I mean, one thing I know about change is we are not going to close the achievement gap without educators.

I do think we know that a teacher who knows what he or she is doing, knows their subject matter, and knows how to impart knowledge to kids is a critical piece of closing the achievement gap.

Higher education is confronting challenges, like the economy is, about the need for a higher number of more adequately trained, more highly educated citizenry.

Don't let anyone else take the measure of your worth and capabilities. Always stand proud in who you are!

In Connecticut, my understanding, although I haven't seen the actual litigation, is that they want to measure every other year and not provide annual assessment as is required in the statute.

And I think that we in America need to understand that many schools need improvement, and particularly with respect to how they're serving minority children.

My understanding is that Kansas, Massachusetts, they've been more pioneers on the special education side.

I think it'd be useful for parents to know kind of what is the culture of an institution.

It's a hard process to navigate... to figure out where your kid ought to go to college.

If all you ever do is all you've ever done, then all you'll ever get is all you've ever got.

There are things that you cannot talk to your mother and father about, there are things that you cannot talk to your children about.

All I really need to know... I learned in kindergarten.

People need to be edited; life needs to be edited. I need to be edited.

In nothingness, there is everything, energy. The ending is a beginning.

Being afraid you'll look like a coward is the worst reason for doing anything.

Photographers are always voyeuristic, and they do sort of live vicariously. I think every artist does.

When you dance, do you feel desire? Do you feel as if you were summoning up a greater energy? When you dance, are there moments when you cease to be yourself?

Leisure without literature is death, or rather the burial of a living man -Otium sine litteris mors est et hominis vivi sepultura

What you can't enforce, do not command.