“It is not just trying hard that makes you successful. You need to be set up in a situation that helps you like an ally, as opposed to fighting you like an enemy.”

“If you put temptations very close to you…it's much more psychologically potent than if you put it away where you cannot see it or you cannot touch it, or both.”

“The strategy for regulating yourself that is the most successful for people of any age tends to be situation modification. That is not relying on willpower, but deliberately placing things either farther or closer, depending on whether you want to do them more or do them less.”

“Aside from parents, there's nobody more important than teachers in the life of a kid. They are looking to you as a role model.”

“That science of self-control—we have to actually teach that to our students. That is not something they come out of the womb knowing how to do.”

“Culture is this living thing, and it can shift from classroom to classroom, and it shifts from year to year. And so, building that is just as much of an art as it is a science, but it's so critical.”

“I believe that all students can be successful in a classroom given the right support, but students have to believe that as well. So we have to be genuine and authentic when we show up in that way, because they know when you're not.”