Every woman should be in control of the decisions that affect her own health.

I do think that all politicians today have to be more attentive to people wanting to be heard, wanting to have more control over their lives.

If you looked at their cable bill, their telephone, their cell phone bill, other things they're spending money on, it may turn out that, it's just that they haven't prioritized health care.

The trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources, and hence facilitate some [wealth] redistribution, because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level, to make sure that everybody's got a shot.

Each path to knowledge involves different rules and these rules are not interchangeable.

I think if you look at almost every year under every president over the last, I don't know, 20, 30 years, you're going to be hard-pressed to find a year in which the majority of Americans thought we were on the right track.

I think if you worked at the community level in Chicago and then a politician on the South Side of Chicago, and worked at the state level, then you're pretty familiar with all the variations of politics in the African American community and criticisms you may get. If you're not familiar with those or you don't have a thick enough skin to take it, then you probably wouldn't have gotten here.