“In different places you run into myths around vaccination or around family planning. In the United States, one of the myths that existed for a long time, that has been completely debunked, was that autism was linked to a vaccine.”

It’s important to remember that behind every data point is a daughter, a mother, a sister—a person with hopes and dreams.

Bill and I both firmly believe that even the most difficult global health problems can be solved.

I went to business school, and I went straight from that to a nine-year career at Microsoft. Eventually, I ran a big chunk of the consumer products division for Microsoft.Then I left with the birth of our first daughter because Bill and I both wanted to have a few kids.

As a parent, the responsible thing to do – if you love your child – is to vaccinate your child.

Abortion has become a very politicised issue that I think countries have to work out themselves. In a lot of countries, people can’t even yet agree on what their laws should be.

If we don’t empower women, we don’t allow them to unlock the potential of themselves and their children.

Our economies are built on the backs of all this unpaid labor that women do.

Sometimes it’s the people you can’t help who inspire you the most.

If you can’t travel to the developing world, look at helping to fund a woman with a small loan and follow her. Learn her story. Learn about the difference that you’re making.

I felt suicidal. I couldn’t stop crying. I remember thinking, wouldn’t it be great if the car crashed and I died?

Birth control has almost completely and totally disappeared from the global health agenda, and the victims of this paralysis are the people of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

We have to be careful in how we use this light shined on us.

Take time to learn about the lives of women around the world-and try to play a small part in their fight to create the future they deserve.

Connect deeply with others. Our humanity is the one thing that we all have in common.

Our desire to bring every good thing to our children is a force for good throughout the world. It’s what propels societies forward.

Poverty disproportionately affects women around the world.

I can’t talk you in terms of time –your time and my time are different

You have to use fantasy to show different sides to reality. That’s how it can bend.

There are a lot of different ways to talk about mindfulness, but what it really means is awareness.

And perhaps beyond those shrouded swells another man did walk with another child on the dead gray sands. Slept but a sea apart on another beach among the bitter ashes of the world or stood in their rags lost to the same indifferent sun.

I grew up with so many different songs that the ones that are fun to play are the ones I want to do.

We don’t ask a flower any special reason for its existence. We just look at it and are able to accept it as being something different from ourselves.

Men make different investments than women do. Women tend to invest more of their earnings than men do in their family’s well-being – as much as 10 times more.

What I’m hoping is that every album I’m going to do will give my audience something different, and that they’ll grow as I do.