I try to explain to them about the aloha spirit. And it's that spirit that I am absolutely convinced is what America is looking for right now.

I kept finding the same anguish, the same doubt; a self-contempt that neither irony nor intellect seemed able to deflect. Even DuBois’s learning and Baldwin’s love and Langston’s humor eventually succumbed to its corrosive force, each man finally forced to doubt art’s redemptive power, each man finally forced to withdraw, one to Africa, one to Europe, one deeper into the bowels of Harlem, but all of them in the same weary flight, all of them exhausted, bitter men, the devil at their heels.

For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.

If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.

My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon.

One of the brightest lights of our time-a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman.

That just gives sort of the democracy an opportunity to test ideas, for those who lost to catch their breath, regain energy, re-energize themselves and then get back in the arena, and then we'll make some more progress in the future.