All of us in government service were elected to solve the problems that have plagued our nation. We are here to think big, to act boldly, and to rise above the petty, partisan squabbling of Washington, D.C. We are here to take action. It's time to start building our country with American workers and with American iron and aluminum and steel. It's time to put up soaring new infrastructure that inspires pride in our people and our towns. It is time at last to put America first.

If you don't have passion, you have no energy, and if you don't have energy, you have nothing.

We have to protect our inner cities, because African-American communities are being decimated by crime, decimated.

As you sit there and as I sit here, they are going in. They're taking over, and they just walk in and they can do whatever they want. They have essentially already taken it over.

I've seen people that are extremely brilliant and they don't have the staying power. They don’t have that never give up quality. I've always said that other than bad ideas, which is a reason for failure, the ability to never ever quit or give up is something that is very, very important for success as an entrepreneur.

While there are differences, there are similarities in terms of cost-cutting and many other things, but you also have to be talking about heart. You need heart. You can't do the same things in government that you do in a company.

I think if we continue to create jobs at levels that I'm creating jobs, I think that's going to have a tremendous impact - positive impact - on race relations.