"What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman, but what I also believe is that we have an obligation to make sure that gays and lesbians have the rights of citizenship that afford them visitations to hospitals, that allow them to be, to transfer property between partners, to make certain that they're not discriminated on the job."

"To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets."

"The beauty of the unknown is that character is forged in the fires of discipline."

"Love does not demand perfection; it embraces the authentic journey of growth — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Not to be born is, past all prizing, best."

"I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter."

"There are a lot of things that are personally uncomfortable to show, especially me without makeup and completely bloated or crying. But I've realized that it's time for me to show my audience that you don't have to be perfect to achieve your dreams. Because nobody relates to being perfect."

"Do not wait for favorable winds; take the oars and row toward your horizon. Reflect upon this whenever doubt clouds your horizon."