"I wasn't inspired so much by a person as by reading many good books. I loved to write and I wondered if I might be able to write material that others would enjoy reading."

“Small scale is critical to local life, to the ability of local people to control what happens where they live.”

“Until the nineteen-seventies, Western countries paid little attention to corruption overseas, and bribery was seen as an unpleasant but necessary part of doing business there. In some European countries, businesses were even allowed to deduct bribes as an expense.”

Source : "Invisible Hand, Greased Palm" by James Surowiecki, www.newyorker.com. May 14, 2012.

“Think of mission like the paddles of a defibrillator applied to the chest of a dying church.”

“Do we have to wait until a disaster overwhelms us before we make the radical changes necessary to protect our world for future generations? That is the vital challenge of sustainable development. If we act now there is much that can be saved which will otherwise disappear forever”

“I want to get out of the major opera houses.”

“Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.”

Source : Mary Schmich (2012). “The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Chicago Tribune's Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary”, p.33, Agate Digital

“The imagination is one of the forces of nature.”

“I'm an unemployed teacher right now and I'm looking for a place to teach.”