Quote

When I was in high school, I was voted most likely to succeed.

I personally don't think of myself as either an optimist or a pessimist.

Talking about class terrifies me. There is no way of winning.

I have a class prejudice - against the upper class, which is foolish.

I am told by others that I have a lateral-thinking, broad approach to problems, sometimes to my detriment. In school, my grades always suffered because I was continually mucking about with irrelevant side issues, which I often found to be more interesting.

I failed first grade, which is my biggest problem. You always feel like a failure, like you're stupid.

I was brought up in an environment to believe that my opinion was important, that I had something to say, and that it was no less powerful because I was young, a girl, at the time really unattractive, definitely not the smartest kid in the class.

I'm not a pessimist at all, but I'm not an optimist, either.

I have friends who are very pessimistic. They say you can't possibly be an optimist nowadays. But I think, taking the longer view, you can still be as optimistic as you want.

I was voted valedictorian, and at my school it wasn't based on grades; that was the popular vote.