When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it's like giving them emotional oxygen.

We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

Stop setting goals. Goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them.

Both me and my parents wanted me to lead a normal life, work in a normal '10 to 5' job and put my education to good use.

When I started law school I was shocked to learn that our legal system traditionally had the man as the head and master of the family. As late as the '70s and '80s when we were fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment, states like Louisiana still had a head and master law.

Committed teachers know their students' needs better than anyone in the system. Traditionally, however, teachers have little control over the purchase of student materials.

Part of the job of a children's author is to write books that will be remembered, definitely, but if I might go out on a limb, I will say that the other part, the more important part, is to build books that will help children fall in love with reading. That, to me, is the real job.