There have been studies that clearly state that children who are exposed to arts education at a young age will in fact do markedly better in their SAT tests.
Among all the tests President Obama faced in his first term his biggest failure was climate change.
I get heartfelt thanks from all kinds of people. Today I heard from a waitress in Georgia who has lost her job and is trying to figure out how her local bank can change the terms on her credit card and I heard from a physicist at a major research university who wants to explain a better theory of financial stress tests.
One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.
But the person who scored well on an SAT will not necessarily be the best doctor or the best lawyer or the best businessman. These tests do not measure character leadership creativity perseverance.
It used to happen in villages and towns in China that they would have - I guess you'd call them beauty contests - where all of the women of a particular village or town would be seated behind these screens or curtains with only their feet showing.
I think exercise tests us in so many ways our skills our hearts our ability to bounce back after setbacks. This is the inner beauty of sports and competition and it can serve us all well as adult athletes.
I think people should be given a test much like driver's tests as to whether they're capable of being parents! It's an art form. I talk a lot. And I think a lot. And I draw a lot. But never in a million years would I have been a parent. That's just work that's too hard.
There are no contests in the Art of Peace. A true warrior is invincible because he or she contests with nothing. Defeat means to defeat the mind of contention that we harbor within.
I liked the way they treated the first second and third place finishers equally. It was an amazing year. I only entered two song contests this year I won one and placed second in the other. And I entered each of them a day or two before the deadline.
Do not rely completely on any other human being however dear. We meet all life's greatest tests alone.
Largely this is a class thing - writers tend to be cosseted little middle-class kiddies who think that the world owes them a royalty cheque. But just doing it - being in your room for years on end locked in your head alone with invented ghosts - it weakens and softens the body. And I know I can't just live in my head.