Parts of the Voting Rights Act are due to expire next year if Congress doesn't extend them, including the section that guarantees that voting rights will be protected by the federal government.

Regrettably, it has become clear that torture of detainees in United States custody is not limited to Abu Ghraib or even Iraq. Since Abu Ghraib, there have been increasing reports of torture.

Black History Month must be more than just a month of remembrance; it should be a tribute to our history and reminder of the work that lies in the months and years ahead.

Real lobbying reform must end the practice of corporate lobbyists writing our laws.

As we celebrate Black History Month we should be grateful for the achievements they made and inspired by their legacies to continue their work.

It is never too late to regain our credibility around the world.

We need a tougher enforcement program and, most importantly, we need to fix the badly broken ethics system.

The worst excesses of the Congress of the 1980s pale in comparison with what is going on in Washington today.

Over the past few years special interests have had a larger and larger say over who gets what in America, and the voices of average citizens are being shut out.

The poorest residents of the gulf coast were most affected by the devastating hurricanes, and the poorest Americans have shouldered a disproportionate share of the burden in Iraq.

What's interesting is there are $12 billion of breaks in the energy bill that passed, yet we see that the sixth major oil companies in America last year made $1.1 trillion.

The worldly life runs easily due to the egoism which is the by-production of the worldly life. By increasing the egoism there, one has incurred endless worries.

Aim to be the blue ribbon best. Have high standards and work to be exceptional. Develop yourself from practice to be a winner at what you do.

Even silence tends to scream in a strained relationship.

It's not that [writers] are pompous jerks. We are insecure. We feel like we're fading away in this vast sea of scriveners.

You want something real bad? Go after it with ferocity like if your life depended on it and never ever surrender. Only a question of time.

Satan wants to cripple me and then blame me for limping.

My music wasn't written by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach or Schubert. It's written by God and me. They go "a one and a two and up." We start on the downbeat. Bam! And that's where we got them.

Choose who you are in any given moment.

Over time, you realize that even the things that are most high stakes kind of resolve themselves.

I suppose I have an active imagination, and writing allows me to live it out.