I've learned through experience that life is never that bad. The secret is just paying attention to how you feel and not letting anyone else dictate what in your heart you know is right.

I'm a latecomer to the environmental issue which for years seemed to me like an excuse for more government regulation. But I can see that in rich societies voters are paying less attention to economic issues and more to issues of the spirit including the environment.

Some of the things I think I learned from that were very educational as far as just paying bills - the basics in dealing with a restaurant like that. It was just life - the education involved in running the organization even on a small level.

You go to Scandinavia and you will find that people have a much higher standard of living in terms of education health care and decent paying jobs.

With Michigan's economic future on the line we can't afford to have our 500 local school districts marching in different directions. Instead we need a high standards mandatory curriculum to get all our students on the road to higher education and a good paying job.

Environmental concern is a little like dieting or paying off credit-card debt - an episodically terrific idea that burns brightly and then seems to fade when we realize there's a reason we need to diet or pay down our debt. The reason is that it's really really hard and too many of us in too many spheres of life choose the easy over the hard.

It's about the power of design and the power of the human spirit. It's above paying anybody to do something stupid for money like reality television does - like ambushing people.

My dad saw my husband's boss at a conference and he said to stop paying my husband until we produce children.

My dad was rubbish at all other aspects of his financial life but he's pretty good at paying the rent.

I used to do this as a kid. And now they're paying me for it which is cool.