Quotes By Donna Shalala

The economic dimension is very clear. I was at a dinner party, a mother got up, who's a very distinguished scientist, and said she had to get home and help her daughter with her homework. The two waiters, their faces changed. They were working their second jobs, they couldn't get home to help their kids with homework.

Higher education is one of few areas where this country competes with the rest of the world and wins. The best of American higher education outstrips any in the world. Look where the rest of the world goes for higher education, for graduate degrees. They come here.

I think President Bush tried to step up on Social Security even though the polls showed that was unpopular. He has not been successful and backed off, but I admire people who take on big problems.

Every year, I am reminded of the kids who aren't in the freshman class and aren't graduating. I remember every single one of them. That is the worst of times for me, to see the future snuffed out.

We know the parental support, community support, makes a difference. It's not just the metrics of testing and putting pressure on the schools and on the teachers.

I'm pretty disciplined and am almost always on schedule.

Asking the government to help you for short periods of time is different than asking the government to take care of you for the rest of your life.

I have always hired people of different ages. Young people and older people. People in their 70s and in their 20s. People who are fully capable of talking back to me.

I have to admit, in January and February I was in an absolute fuzz. I had no one on board. It wasn't that I didn't know what I was doing, but we didn't have all the pieces put together.

By putting people around me who will calm me down and slow me down and make sure I work through an issue.

I've spent my whole life with people underestimating me.

I would argue that we have a generation of young people, particularly minorities, who are no longer putting up with the kinds of things their parents put up with. They're much more self-confident. It's no longer acceptable to make fun of people because of race or sex. But it has always been present in American society.

We need to drive down requirements for the schools. In the 19th century, we increased the quality of the schools by higher education saying, 'You can't come in unless you have these skills, unless you've taken these courses.' We did that in Wisconsin when I was there, it helped to transform the secondary school system.

What you really remember at the beginning was that you have to throw a budget together. We made some terrible mistakes at the beginning in my own budget that took us at least a year to catch up on.

I think anyone that thought that we were coming in as a bunch of liberal Democrats to deliver more large-scale social programs was nuts. I sure didn't expect it.

We have to mainstream everybody. No matter what their circumstances when they were growing up. Part of that is knowing that after they're finished with school, everybody in this country gets up and goes to work.

The government is fully capable of delivering services. Even complex services.

But I have a driver, so I can return calls while I'm in the car.

I try to deal with my serious reading before work.

You go to college not only for the latest knowledge but also to meet people from different backgrounds. That's the genius of the American higher-education system compared with the Europeans'. We don't simply skim the elite.

We can't afford as a nation - not because of money but because of our social fabric - to have large numbers of people who are not working.

You don't want to destroy the energy that comes out of a campaign.

Sex education has to do with what's in people's head.

We have not yet concluded that needle-exchange programs do not encourage drug use.

I have long ties to the women's community.

The dog doesn't know the difference between Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so I have to walk the dog early those days too.

I'll be one of the spokespeople, one of the people who sells the Administration's plans.

I am interested in getting people to use the healthcare system at the right time, getting them to see the doctor early enough, before a small health problem turns serious.

But for me, it is when a student has died. I find the death of a young person the most difficult and painful of times. To explain it to other young people, to see a bright future snuffed out, is just awful. I am haunted by those deaths.

I get to work at about 7:30 or 8 unless I have a breakfast meeting.