When I first arrived in the country, I really didn't speak much of the language. I knew two words coming here, and they were 'Hello' and 'Shut up.'

When I was coming to this country, I heard about its promises.

My family called me the 'why kid' growing up. I always needed to know why something is happening, why I had to do something, why whatever.

Hope will be found by understanding that diversity is the essence of the American Dream and why we need each other to fulfill it.

My parents were born and brought up in New York City. My father was trained as an electrical engineer, and my mother was an elementary school teacher. They were the children of Jewish immigrants who had come to the United States from England and Lithuania in the late 1800s.

Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love.

The education of a man is never completed until he dies.

The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.