'The Purpose-Driven Life' is not just a mega-bestselling work of Christian faith; it is the thing that every voter, secular or not, yearns for.

True patriots measure themselves not by personal wealth or power but by the degree to which they contribute to the community.

The next time someone uses denial of citizenship as a weapon or brandishes the special status conferred upon him by the accident of birth, ask him this: What have you done lately to earn it?

Today's multiracial Americans are at greater liberty to choose how they'd like to be seen, and under less pressure to pass for white.

We're all better off...when we're all better off.

The Boomers have modeled a set of bad habits, and one grand gesture is not going to unwind all those bad habits.

Identity in America is complicated but it's also simple: it's about whom you identify with and who identifies with you.

As it stands now, those of us who are lucky enough to be citizens by birth don't have to do much. Very little is asked of us.

Throughout this country's history there have of course been systematic efforts to create an official underclass.

To be sure, the United States has profound problems, not least our faltering educational and physical infrastructure.

Society becomes how you behave.

Let me be, was all I wanted. Be what I am, no matter how I am.

I had a vague memory of being that ridiculous at one time. Let he who hath never worn parachute pants cast the first stone.

My wealth is measured not in money but in photographs, not in quantity but creativity.

In Poland, for a while, my books all had cartoons on the cover. I trust my publishers in each country to know what works in their individual markets.

Horace normally didn't need anyone else to save his life. He was pretty skilled at doing it for himself.

I told [my daughter Amy] at an early age that she had a good ear. But I didn't influence her music much. She's pretty much developed her style on her own, and she's a talented songwriter.

I've grown up, everyone's got to grow up. But there's something inside me, I'm always going to have that little sort of, how do you say, child streak.

I'd much rather fail than do something like 'The Chorus Line' movie, sanitized and Hollywoodized.

I was a professional fighter for a while, and I trained in martial arts for seven years, so I think that kind of helped form a base for me as far as dancing.

I wouldn't just have other people write songs and me go out and sing it. I would sit down with a guitar and write 11 or 12 good songs for an album and that is gonna take a long time.