I'm a very happy university professor... the best thing about being a university professor is that you see young people as they're being shaped and molded toward their own future, and you have a chance to be a part of that.

I'm quite content to spend my life helping young people find themselves. I've had my fill of politics.

Success is not assured, but America is resolute: this is the best chance for peace we are likely to see for some years to come - and we are acting to help Israelis and Palestinians seize this chance.

When I talk to students - and I still think of myself more than anything as a kind of professor on leave - they say, 'Well, how do I get to do what you do?'... And I say, 'Well, you have to start out by being a failed piano major.' And my point to them is don't try to have a 10-year plan. Find the next thing that interests you and follow that.

A huge part of what animates homophobia among young people is paranoia and fear of their own capacity to be gay themselves.

After centuries of dormancy, young women... can now look toward a future moulded by their own hands.