America traditionally represents the greatest possibility of someone's going from nothing to something. Why? In theory, if not practice, the government stays out of the way and lets individuals take risks and reap rewards or accept the consequences of failure. We call this capitalism - or, at least, we used to.

The No. 1 cause of preventable death for young black men is not auto accidents or accidental drowning, but homicide.

Once brave politicians and others explain the war on drugs' true cost, the American people will scream for a cease-fire. Bring the troops home, people will urge. Treat drugs as a health problem, not as a matter for the criminal justice system.

People value and spend their money more wisely when they acquire it by their own efforts - also known as work.

Women need opportunity and encouragement. If a girl can climb mountains, she can do anything positive within her field of work.

Mountaineering is one of the most difficult sports - we are away from routine life for days, living in tents, and it requires high degree of physical and mental strength.

It's cool to have critical success because it's always nice for your peers to say, 'Good job.' But who cares about them?

The real reason we ended up getting into that type of music was our dad worked for an oil company so we spent a year overseas when we were young kids. Because of that, it was all Spanish TV and radio so we ended up having these '50s and '60s tapes, tapes of that music.

As we think of power in the 21st century, we want to get away from the idea that power's always zero sum - my gain is your loss and vice versa. Power can also be positive sum, where your gain can be my gain.

I haven't gotten a lot of feedback about, 'Oh, you helped me in this way.' But on social media, people are like, 'Thank you for your positive posts,' or 'It's fun to see you grow and your character. I feel like I'm growing with you.'

I try not to read the stuff online because it's so hurtful and stuff. There was somebody that said I was messing up my genetics by dating my boyfriend because he's not black. It was an interesting thing to read.

I've had a few encounters: At a restaurant, this woman that was like, 'Oh my God, oh my God, can we take a picture with you? My son said not to, but I just had to. You my favorite 'Devils Girl!'

I just pinch myself, because I think if there's anything I can be proud of, I've survived success, which I think is difficult these days.

During the holidays, everyone needs a break from studying for exams and Christmas shopping. I wanted to put together a diverse tour that rocks in many musical directions but always points to Christ.

I think Christmas is about celebration and come on, on the inside everyone wants to dance.

I'm not going to put out a Christmas CD until it's coming out of me naturally.

Selling millions of records is great, but at the end of the day it really doesn't bring peace.

Anything negative that happens to you in life can be turned into a positive as far as acting is concerned. You can draw on your experiences - it's far better than any research.

I was studying to be a legal secretary when I was called to audition for 'Ken.'

I'm all about your mindset, being focused, staying positive, being optimistic, and knowing that these are all aspects of my life that I love and enjoy.

Being pregnant is supposed to be the happiest time in your life.

Success doesn't mean that you are healthy, success doesn't mean that you're happy, success doesn't mean that you're rested. Success really doesn't mean that you look good, or feel good, or are good.

I believe that how you feel is very important to how you look - that healthy equals beautiful.

Unless we keep this planet healthy, everything else is for naught.

E-mail is a victim of its own success.

Well, I had a lot of help from my father with the soldering and so on, and he was very good at math and was fascinated with computers, and so I was fortunate enough to have a bunch of exposure going all the way back to high school - this was in the 1960s.

Computers ought to help people find their own best path through lots of textual information.

Managerial and professional people hadn't really used computers, hadn't sat down at keyboards, until personal computers. Personal computers have a totally different feel.

I give Bill Gates an A for vision because, as a business person and a strategist, he's brilliant. His flaw is that his view is not informed by a humanistic or compassionate vision of how to make computers work for people.

Before I started a company, I was an employee with a bad attitude. I was always felt like, bosses are stupid, and people weren't well treated.

If information wants to be free, then that's true everywhere, not just in information technology.

We are living in an era of anxiety produced by computer and communications technology.

A typical medical practice is like an old-fashioned business which keeps all of its records on paper. It can probably track down any individual transaction if it needs to, but it's basically helpless when it comes to overall measurements of performance. And that's the big problem.

If you look at the history of other movements, whether Civil Rights or environmental rights, these are all decades-long undertakings.

From activism to socialising to starting new bands, 99% of everything that happens on MySpace is fun and positive. But with that many people, there's going to be a few bad apples, which presents challenges.

When you were growing up, your mom and dad told you to look both ways before crossing the street or not to get into a car with a stranger. It's the same with the Internet. We have a big responsibility and a huge role in bringing all the stakeholders to the table - users, parents, educators, law enforcement, government organisations.

Those who have succeeded at anything and don't mention luck are kidding themselves.

The Kardashians can be famous for being famous. What do they do? I can't figure it out.

I did everything when I started. In Miami I did news, I did weather, I did sports, I did disk-jockeying. And I did a sports talk show every week - every Saturday night.

One way to make a positive out of a negative is that you can put it into your work.

I love 'Braxton Family Values!' I love seeing a strong family unit striving for success while dealing with everyday struggles like everyone else. Whatever drama they find themselves in, they find a way to solve it and get back to the importance of family. A positive show for sure.

The secret to my success is that I bit off more than I could chew and chewed as fast as I could.

Nowadays people talk about PayPal's founders as prescient geniuses who would inevitably change the world. It was, however, not so obvious that PayPal would taste its first major success by helping people sell Beanie Babies on eBay. But they had a vision, a hope, and the perseverance to try multiple iterations until they got it right.

Famous pivot stories are often failures but you don't need to fail before you pivot. All a pivot is is a change is strategy without a change in vision. Whenever entrepreneurs see a new way to achieve their vision - a way to be more successful - they have to remain nimble enough to take it.

I can't say I'm not grateful to have journalists writing about me as a genius. But I know it's not true. I'm not confused. I understand that success comes through a lot of failure and a lot of very embarrassing failure. People want to create the next Facebook, but they are too afraid to create the next Facemash.

The attributes for entrepreneurs cut both ways. You need the ability to ignore inconvenient facts and see the world as it should be and not as it is. This inspires people to take huge leaps of faith. But this blindness to facts can be a liability, too. The characteristics that help entrepreneurs succeed can also lead to their failure.

Our educational system is not preparing people for the 21st Century. Failure is an essential part of entrepreneurship. If you work hard, you can get an 'A' pretty much guaranteed, but in entrepreneurship, that's not how it works.

Start-ups make so many mistakes that the challenge to identify the root cause of a failure is tough. But believing in your own plan is probably the worst.

Except in very narrow cases, where there's breakthrough science that needs patent production, worrying about competitors is a waste of time. If you can't out iterate someone who is trying to copy you, you're toast anyway.

I believe for the first time in history, entrepreneurship is now a viable career.