America is a place where you can be born into a low-income household but still lift yourself up, and it doesn't matter what color you are.

The other part of outsourcing is this: it simply says where the work can be done outside better than it can be done inside, we should do it.

The largest challenge that we face, from my perspective, is the ability to continue moving forward so the agency will have a single mission: that is, to provide decent, safe, and affordable housing.

The dream doesn't lie in victimization or blame; it lies in hard work, determination and a good education.

As you know, in this country Anglo-Americans are about 75 to 76 percent home ownership in this country, where Hispanics, African Americans are less than 50 percent.

In 1965, I marched for equality.

And I always like to stress, it's not a quota, not a set-aside, it's not about race, it's about giving opportunities to demonstrate their abilities to do work with the Federal Government.

Being poor is a state of mind, not a condition.

The Bush administration is the most diverse in history because the president fills jobs on the basis of a person's capabilities and qualifications, not on the color of his or her skin.

You can't rise as a class. You have to rise individually. It's what many of the civil rights-era people don't understand.

For the first half of my adult life, I was a Democrat.

One of the most obvious signs of intelligence is not knowledge alone but imagination combined with reason.

Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense.

Why do more than 40 percent of Americans think that the Universe began after the domestication of the dog?

I've been playing on Christmas for the last 10, 11, 12 years. So just got to get up early with the babies, and give them their toys and try to get a nap in and just come to play.

Dignity is not negotiable. Dignity is the honor of the family.

When you're born in this world you're given a ticket to the Freak Show. And when you're born in America, you're given a front row seat. And some of us get to sit there with notebooks.

Say "I love you" to those you love. The eternal silence is long enough to be silent in, and that awaits us all.

The woman in us still prosecutes a deceit like that begun in the garden.

All agreed that Quickset was the cleverest cat in the world. And, since Quickset had the same opinion, it was surely true.

Get to the end of yourself where you can do nothing, but where He does everything.