I look a little bit like Barbie and talk a little bit like Ken. It's easier for me to sit in the middle of the boys' club than to be surrounded by people concerned about getting their hair and nails done.
We are in an international marketplace for talent, and American colleges and universities need to be able to attract students and faculty from around the world if we want to sustain our excellence.
One of the major jobs of the Harvard president is to choose the deans. I've had the opportunity to choose a considerable number of deans already, so I've learned a lot in the process in doing it.
The day I will never forget is the day I married my wife, Tashera. Tashera is so special to my boys and me. Her energy is enough to put anyone on a cloud. Her dedication and care gives me comfort and ease.
When I wrote The Virgin Suicides, I gave myself very strict rules about the narrative voice: the boys would only be able to report what they had seen or found or what had been told to them.
For the most part, boys are very physical. It's not enough for them to be told they have what it takes and they have greatness. They have to discover for themselves. We learn by doing. The doing has to be somewhat physical.
From whichever angle one looks at it, the application of racial theories remains a striking proof of the lowered demands of public opinion upon the purity of critical judgment.
My new favorite quote is, "Feed kids Cokes and french fries and you get an obesity crisis. Feed them mental junk food and you get non-readers and poor thinkers.
And I know how many DJ pools have grown and I know how DJing has grown in the overall, but that was the technical side of it to me. DJs were rolling around, looking for stuff to buy and looking to see what was in the store when they get there.
Back in the day, if someone said that hip hop and rap was a fad, that was a joke to me because they just didn't know what they were talking about. In reality, there were so many people who didn't know what they were talking about it.
If I was president, of course I'd want an amendment banning boy bands, but it just wouldn't be right, and I wouldn't do it. Then again... I don't want to paint myself into a corner on this one. Let me think about it.
People rarely speak of children; you hear of 'cohort groups' and 'standard variations,' but you don't hear much of boys who miss their cats or 6-year-olds who have to struggle with potato balls.
My mother married my father in 1956. She was twenty-eight, and he was thirty-one. She loved him with a fierce steadiness borne of loyalty, determination, and an unyielding dignity.
Middle-class mothers and fathers turned out to be a very well-defined consumer group, easily gulled into buying almost anything that might remedy their parental deficiencies.
I was a very sickly boy when I was young; nearly died when I was 7. I had a life-threatening attack of meningitis, and that put me in a coma for a few months. It took me four years to get my memory back.
Mrs. Marcus: [holding cactus plant] Well, uh, where shall I put this? J. Russell Finch: [double take] Oh, boy.
Mrs. Marcus: [holding a planter containing several cactus] Well, where should I put this? J. Russell Finch: [scoffing] Oh, boy.
Milo Tindle: It looks like you've had it. They're coming up the drive. Andrew Wyke: Keep them out! Milo Tindle: Keep the police out? It's just not done, old boy. But still, I'll try.
Jack Burridge: Jack. Terry: What? Jack Burridge: That's the name I want. Terry: [slowly] Okay... Jack Burridge: Jack. Terry: Well, that's the first thing taken care of.
I dress like a boy most of the time because I like what's comfortable, so sometimes when I have to wear dresses and makeup, it's kind of comedic. I take lots of pictures on my cell phone: 'Look, I'm dressed like a girl! Surprise!'
My grandmother made sure that I went to church every Sunday. And she'd come over and pick us boys up, and we would go to the Nazarene church. And back then, that was about as close to heaven as I ever got, because just the time to be able to spend wi...
