I like my life. I've had a good life. I think the reason is my parents taught me that life is a burden. But if you take it one day at a time, it's an easy burden.

We think it is complicated to change the world. Change comes little by little. Nothing worthwhile can happen in one generation.

Martin Luther King was talking about racism, war and poverty. I think we have made progress enormous progress in racism and war, but we have made little or no progress in poverty. And it's because the economy has gotten more and more complex as we have globalized.

I think we've made tremendous progress on racism. We've even made progress on war. We've made almost no progress on poverty.

If I hadn't been so outspoken, Jimmy Carter wouldn't have wanted me.

Some kind of affirmative action is important in a democracy and for economic competitiveness and national security. The Army was the first to realize that you had to have desegregation of a military to have it working properly.

I was raised that way: don't get mad, get smart.