“But if you believe that adults can ‘make’ children learn well—in the absence of or in defiance of a child’s inner sense of confident engagement with the power of discovery and mastery—then, in my view, you are placing that child at great risk of failure as a learner.”

“Without ongoing training in tailoring instruction to individual learners (and support in doing so), “fault” for underperformance or disengagement from learning is frequently shifted to the child: The child is lazy, has an attitude problem, or refuses to work up to his or her potential. The child is enormously vulnerable in this system.”

“In fact, I think that our society expects schools to get students to the point where they do things only for outside rewards. People who perform tasks for their internal reasons are hard to control. Now, I don't think teachers get up in the morning and say to themselves, 'I', going to go to school today and take away all those young people's internal motivations' ...but that's exactly what often happens.”

“Wholly absorbed into my own conduits toan inner nature or subterranean lakethe depths or bounds of which I more and moreexplore and know moreof, in that sense that other than that all elsecloses out and I tend further to fall intothe Beloved Lake and I am blinder fromspending time as insistently in and onthis personal preserve from whichwhat I do do emerges more well-known thanother ways and other outside places whichdon’t give as much and distract me fromkeeping my attentions as clearCharles Olson, "Additions", March 1968—2”

“All the most powerful emotions come from chaos -fear,anger,love- especially love. Love is chaos itself. Think about it! Love makes no sense. It shakes you up and spins you around. And then, eventually , it falls apart.”

“When you have a Thai girlfriend you never lose her - you just sometimes lose your place in the queue”

“Yeah right. I'll believe you, thousands wouldn't. Want to borrow my mirror?”