The most important thing we can do is to make sure that we've got very high standards, we expect a lot out of all of our young people, and we make sure that we have the best teachers possible in every classroom.

I remember reading [ Studs Terkel's] "Working" when it first came out and just finding that very powerful. I was going into community organizing. What stuck was to reveal the sacredness of ordinary people's lives. That everybody has a story. And I think Studs is terrific at drawing out that shimmering quality of people's everyday struggles.

I decided to become a community organizer ... Change won't come from the top, I would say. Change will come from a mobilized grass roots.

California is our biggest economy. California is our biggest agricultural producer. So what happens here matters to every working American.

A nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.

Now, some have said I blame too many problems on my predecessor, but let's not forget that's a practice that was initiated by George W. Bush.

We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions