When the answer to all my dreams is as close as a touch away, why am I here holding back what I'm trying to say?

I know that I've got big ears and a big forehead and that my hair sticks up, but I'm happy with myself. I'm not necessarily trying to win a beauty pageant here.

I decided to study special education and fell in love with working with individuals with autism. That's what I planned to do with my life.

The message I'll share...is that inclusion is extremely important for kids with and without disabilities.

A song can be more than words and music ... when sung with soul a song carries you to another world, to a place where no matter how much pain you feel, you are never alone.

I like to talk. I'm a terrible dancer. I love my hometown. I have freckles and oversized ears. I'm a geeks. I have tried not to hide who I am or what matters to me.

Well, fortunately we found out that the runner-up our particular year was going to get a record contract also. So it was kind of a - it was bitter sweet but it was an opportunity.

It doesn't really matter to me how I make a difference, I just wanna make sure that I do.

I know this is going to sound cheesy and like I'm trying to be Miss America, but the most important responsibility a celebrity has is to set an example and be a role model.

And I think that when I finally decided to let go and let God and allow that to happen, I became a lot more successful than I could have done if I had planned it all myself.

I went to school for special education. I always assumed when I had the opportunity I would love to try and help kids with disabilities.

One by one, the electric lights ringing the lawn were ignited. Each one, as it burst into brilliance, erased a constellation from the evening sky.

The very idea that we get a moral compass from religion is horrible. Not only should we not get our moral compass from religion, as a matter of fact we don't.

If you're a Republican and rich, that's evil. But if you're a Democrat and rich, that's great.

Everything I do in my life is very aggressive.

Through my former experiences, writing poetry and learning other languages leading up to English I find ways to stitch words together that may seem a bit odd, but somehow, sometimes they do work.

A speech without a specific purpose is like a journey without a destination.

There is a lesson we learn early and harmlessly, or late and traumatically - that there are things we can break that our parents can't fix.

Nobody can be rich and stupid for more than one generation.

Dad? Um, listen. I have kind of a crazy story for you.

I like to write about love plus an obstacle. Not a really big obstacle; not too serious and not too funny. Just somewhere nicely in between - a combination of the two.