So here I was, a brown woman, and I rather felt like the bottom of the barrel. So, I went to my father who, at the time, was the wisest man I knew, and he is still the wisest man I know. You've got this all wrong. You're not just a short round brown girl from the Bronx. What you are is a human being, and a human being is the best animal on the whole planet.
Human beings can achieve anything through learning.
I know people are always saying this, and as a scientist, I'm beginning to believe it more. Human beings need this great hunk of tissue sitting on the end of their spinal column, called the brain, to make their environment suit them, and to make themselves suit their environment. Both my parents were seriously into academics as a way of getting out of the Bronx. When going to my father's grocery store I would have to do my homework in the telephone booth so he could see me working on it. In the summer, I'd sit in the backseat of the car parked in front of the store so he could see me doing my homework.