Bullies do whatever they can get away with and keep pushing boundaries until they meet resistance.

Knowledge is the key that unlocks all the doors. You can be green-skinned with yellow polka dots and come from Mars, but if you have knowledge that people need, instead of beating you, they'll beat a path to your door.

Over the years my mother's steadfast faith in God has inspired me, particularly when I had to perform extremely difficult surgical procedures or when I found myself faced with my own medical scare.

Our children need to see and hear about more black role models in many fields so they can make better choices.

I'm not even sure I like surgery, but I like what it does, I like the effects. I like to be able to give people longevity and quality of life, and I also think it's good for people to use the special gifts and talents that they have. And when I was in medical school, when I began to analyze the gifts and talents that I had, I realized that surgery would probably be a very good fit for me.

We need to be willing to stand up and speak up for what we believe.

Because 9/11 is an isolated incident. Things that are isolated issues as opposed to things that fundamentally change the United Sates of America and shift power from the people to the government. That is a huge shift. You have to take a long-term look at something that fundamentally changes the power structure of America.