I'm not so much against the war as I am for a Vietnamese victory. I'm not so much for peace as for a U.S. defeat.

I knew Barack Obama, absolutely. And I knew him probably as well as thousands of other Chicagoans.

After I had known [Barack Obama] for a while, I remember saying to my partner, "You know, this guy is really ambitious, I think he wants to be Mayor of Chicago." That was the limit of my imagination.

That's what [Abraham] Lincoln said. "The white man will always be above the black man. I don't want them to run for office, or have political rights, or vote. I want them to go back to Africa."

[John] McCain seemed to be winking to the Right, and [Barack] Obama seemed to be winking to the Left. Neither one of them - if McCain had been elected we'd still be where we are on gay rights.

I was a child of privilege and I woke up to a world on fire.

When someone who's always been in your life is gone, it's a stunning adjustment of your own identity.