Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.
Never would I have thought that I would meet Mick Jagger, much less be working on the same project.
What's nice about having an engineering degree is everybody thinks you are smart.
My parents are from Ghana. Until I was 17, I thought you had to go to college. I had no idea. I didn't know it was not an option.
Another benefit of going to Cornell is that 90 percent of your friends are doctors.
Every culture feels like their parents are the most stringent as far as, "We came to this country to work hard, we want you to be a doctor or a lawyer. "
I grew up listening to blues and rock 'n' roll and other music, but, legitimately, the Stones is one of my favorite bands in the world.
The real thing is that you are suffering from your expectations. When they are not fulfilled - and they are never going to be fulfilled - frustration arises, failure arises, and you feel neglected, as if existence does not care for you. Drop expectations for the future. Remain open, remain available to whatsoever happens, but don't plan ahead. Don't make any psychological, fixed ideas about the future - that things should be like this - and much more suffering will disappear.
Experience burned into me the conviction that access to education ought to be based on how much you are willing to learn and how hard you are willing to work, not on how many dollars your family has in their bank account.
[Writing] is almost like those boats that sit really low in the water; they look kind of ugly. And then you get one of them up to 80 miles an hour and the hull comes up, and it's a beautiful thing. I'm okay with that for myself.
There's nothing better than not knowing what's going to happen until you put the pieces together.