We're in the middle of the transformation of a society that has handled its politics through repression to a society that will handle its politics through democratic institutions.

Multiethnic character of America is very attractive to people. They also see a place where you get ahead, not because of where you came from, but because of where you want to go.

I laugh almost everyday. I have a good sense of humor, so I'm always finding something funny.

I use the word power broadly. Even more important than military and economic power is the power of ideas, the power of compassion, and the power of hope.

America is a remarkable place in that social attitudes change almost imperceptibly, and then you wake up the next day and they've changed. But they've been changing all the time.

Most middle-class Americans, even working-class Americans, encounter each other across racial lines all the time, but it gets really hard-core when you get into that witches' brew that is the combination of race and poverty.

It is high time that the international community tell Saddam Hussein and his regime that this is not an issue of negotiation with the U.N. about obligations that they undertook in 1991.