You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy or any of your time or any of your space.

The president felt that it was important to send an ordinary citizen to experience the excitement of space travel as a representative for all Americans.

I think you just assume that your memory is just sort of a video playback of your experience but it's nothing like that at all. It's a complete refabrication of an event and a lot of it is made up because you're filling in spaces.

When I was 12 years old someone took me to see Martha Graham. It was nothing like what I thought of as serious dancing and even then I knew I was having a great experience. It was as if somebody was moving through space like no one ever did before.

Living in a rural setting exposes you to so many marvelous things - the natural world and the particular texture of small-town life and the exhilarating experience of open space.

We are increasingly likely to find ourselves in places with background music. No composers have thought to write for these modern spaces which represent 30% of our musical experience.

A fascinating challenge facing today's environmental movement is how to best approach the reversal of past decisions that altered once-pristine environmental spaces for the sake of urgent man-made needs.

I cherish the creation of public space and services especially health housing and the comprehensive education system which dared to give so many of us ideas 'above our station.'

What's got me excited about the education space is the growth of the Internet over the next 10 20 30 years.

The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel.