A religious test for entering our country is not reflective of America's fundamental values. I reject it.

Exploiting people's emotions of fear, envy and anxiety is not hope, it's not change, it's partisanship. We don't need partisanship. We don't need demagoguery, we need solutions.

We don’t want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency...

Big-government economics breeds crony capitalism. It's corrupt, anything but neutral, and a barrier to broad participation in prosperity.

A free economy and strong communities honor the dignity of every person, rewarding effort with justice, promoting upward mobility, and building solidarity among citizens.

Mr. Vice President, I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't keep interrupting each other.

If somebody is going to try to paste a person's view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas. Don't give me Ayn Rand.

And to this day, my Mom is my role model.

Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together.

We will not spend four years blaming others, we will take responsibility.

We need to stop spending money we don't have.

I can relate to soul, R&B... whatever people want to call me is fine. I just hope it makes them feel something.

Mozart never composed anything, ever! He copied what was written on his soul.

Steinway grand pianos are the best in the world.

I love what I call "re-imagining," where I throw everything up in the air and let it fall in a different way. It's not the most efficient way to write a book, but it's how I find the story.

If things sometimes get tough, you can't ask yourself what impact it's having on you. It isn't an option.

To accept reality is only to encourage it.

If it doesn't work horizontally as prose... it probably won't work any better vertically pretending to be poetry.

No one is in charge of this process, this is what makes history so interesting, it's a runaway freight train on a dark and stormy night.

They [the Pilgrims] believed in freedom of thought for themselves and for all other people who believed exactly as they did.

What can be shown? What true love be? All could be known or shown If Time were but gone.