There is not enough faith in black music at a high level.

If you cannot smile when you listen to music, then do not listen to it!

The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.

Properly used, positive reinforcement is extremely powerful.

A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.

I remember when I was a freshman in college, I was still somewhat bothered by... worried... about religion. I remember going to this professor of philosophy and telling him that I had lost my faith.

I don't know whether I want to improve religion or not. I prefer to get rid of it.

Must we wait for selection to solve the problems of overpopulation, exhaustion of resources, pollution of the environment and a nuclear holocaust, or can we take explicit steps to make our future more secure? In the latter case, must we not transcend selection?

Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.

If you insist that individual rights are the summum bonum, then the whole structure of society falls down.

I don't deny the importance of genetics. However, the fact that I might be altruistic isn't because I have a gene for altruism; the fact that I do something for my children at some cost to myself comes from a history that has operated on me.

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.

I won't say that I'm an agnostic, since agnosticism maintains that one cannot know... but I'm not averse to the idea of some intelligence or some organizing force that set up the initial conditions of the universe in such a way that ultimately generated stars, planets and life.

Behavior used to be reinforced by great deprivation; if people weren't hungry, they wouldn't work. Now we are committed to feeding people whether they work or not. Nor is money as great a reinforcer as it once was. People no longer work for punitive reasons, yet our culture offers no new satisfactions.

I did not direct my life. I didn't design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That's what life is.

Positive energy knows no boundaries. If everyone were to spread positive energy on the Internet, the world would be a much better place.

Positive energy is meant to give people confidence and hope, encourage people to love their country, society and life, as well as to pursue nice things. Everything we do is ultimately for the sake of spreading positive energy.

In cyberspace, people with different skin colors, nationalities, cultures and languages should be equally entitled to participation, free speech and development. We should abandon prejudices, respect differences, and be tolerant and open.

Remember, it isn't the dreamers who have good lives - it's the doers. Remember also what I call the three Ps of success: passion, planning, and perseverance.

I have always found the best way to live is to be optimistic and energetic and willing to work hard for my dreams as well as the dreams of others.

To be a great nation and a great people, you have to do great things.

I have good and bad days like everyone else. I just try to be positive and surround myself with great people. When I think about all the great things and people I have had in my life, that gives me confidence.

I'm keeping my power to myself and my glow. I'm not giving anybody my glow anymore.

Mothers have always held such symbolic weight in determining a person's worth. Your mother tongue, your motherland, your mother's values - these things can qualify or disqualify you from attaining myriad American dreams: love, fluency, citizenship, legitimacy, acceptance, success, freedom.

If you were to make a quick judgment call on my intelligence and articulation when I first moved to the U.S. based on my speaking skills, it would be very low.

I went to school in California, at Stanford when I was seventeen, and I lived in San Francisco until I was twenty-three, and then I lived in Hungary for, like, a summer, and then I went to Iowa for three years. At Iowa, I actually did the fiction program, not poetry. I was a fiction writer for a long time before I was 'out' as a poet.

Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, who founded Lenny Books together, also happen to have exquisite reading tastes - from obscure small press poetry chapbook to dishy memoirs to literary novels - and so it's a real honor that they've chosen to announce their imprint with my stories.

I just submitted what I had to the 'Octopus Books' contest open reading period, and they said they wanted to publish my poetry book. Then I started to publish more and more poetry because people would ask me to do readings or ask me submit something for their journal.

Poetry was my dirty little secret when I was a fiction writer at Iowa, and then fiction became my dirty little secret when I started writing more poetry and working for 'Rookie'.

The historical legacy of 'The Best American Poetry' is they've had very few editors who were not white. They've had very few instances where they've selected poems by non-white poets.

People who have very devastating lives sometimes have the most wild, avant-garde humor. It's like when you've seen it all and been through it all, nothing is off-limits in a way.

I think it was really important for me before I 'debuted myself' in front of the world to have a private life with my imagination and my writing for several years. That also made it so I didn't feel desperate for someone to find me.

The two most important requirements for major success are: first, being in the right place at the right time, and second, doing something about it.

While formal schooling is an important advantage, it is not a guarantee of success nor is its absence a fatal handicap.

The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.

You're only as good as the people you hire.

If you work just for money, you'll never make it, but if you love what you're doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.

All money means to me is a pride in accomplishment.

Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.

We provide food that customers love, day after day after day. People just want more of it.

I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well.

The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.

It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.

Where there is devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence.

My masters are strange folk with very little care for music in them.

My mom was a model, so she's been really good about giving me tips on how to navigate behind the scenes - like the importance of being nice to everyone on set and remembering people's names, to how to be a positive part of the photo shoot and stuff like that.

When I was 11, I made truffle risotto for my family for Christmas dinner.

People can see a picture of my body from the neck down and know who it is because of my beauty marks or whatever you call them, moles. I've always had them, and I've always loved them. Obviously you have to be careful with that; I get them checked regularly and make sure that they're healthy.

My sister is my little star, and I'm excited for her and proud of her. With her, I'm protective, but also I don't want to be that sister who's really pushy and thinks they know everything and making her feel like she doesn't know what she's doing. I'm trying to be that cool older sister and not the mom, but it's hard.