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.

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.

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.

But I do know this: that the two and a half years that I've been at HUD, I am absolutely convinced that some of the best workers in the world are in Federal Government.

After leaving law school, I intentionally said that I never wanted to hold a job more than six years.

I think serving your government is the greatest thing in the world.

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