“I was sitting with the rest of my college graduating class listening to the commencement speaker prepare us for life after graduation, and he had a lot of ground to cover because my liberal arts education had skirted the issue for 4 years. I was just waiting for them to call my name so I could go up, collect my diploma, fold it into a paper hat, and start flipping burgers at McDonalds.”

“I had this whole plan when I graduated high school: I was going to go to college, date a few guys, and then meet THE guy at the end of my freshman year, maybe at the beginning of my sophomore year. We'd be engaged by graduation and married the next year. And then, after some traveling, we'd start our family. Four kids, three years apart. I wanted to be done by the time I was 35.”

“The first time I saw him again, it was another year, at my college graduation. And I just knew.”

“The “some college,” “four-year college graduate,” and “no college” types who have high incomes often had a head start on many well-educated workers.”

“This is incredible. This is quite amazing because who you're honoring tonight is not only myself but the ghost of a lot of your favorite writers. And I wouldn't be here except that they spoke to me in the library. The library's been the center of my life. I never made it to college. I started going to the library when I graduated from high school. I went to the library every day for three or four days a week for 10 years and I graduated from the library when I was 28.”

“I strongly believe that the best economic policyfor any administration is the one that seeks to produce more entrepreneurs,not just more minimally educated college graduates withnowhere to go. Nothing against recent college graduates, but manyof today’s best universities are no longer providing the basics of aclassical liberal education.That is why the single most important economic issue of ourtime—and one that impacts the poor and middle class alike—will behow we treat the entrepreneurs and wealth creators among us, fromboth the government and the private-sector viewpoints.”