As an Oklahoma quarterback, you learn to perform under pressure.

I'm looking forward to the day when America will mature to the point that we are a color-blind society. I'm not so sure that in politics that will ever be reality, because politics has a way of separating us based on skin color.

Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught.

Most of all, however, critics of black conservatives say we've forgotten where we came from. I may forget a federal budget number or, God forbid, to set the alarm clock for my weekly 6 a.m. flight to Washington, but I know exactly where I came from.

My work in the House of Representatives, at this time in my life, is completed. It is time to return home.

I have often said one of the reasons more blacks don't support Republicans is because they don't trust the GOP establishment.

We need to remember that politics is all about people, not programs. We shouldn't want to take the humanness out of the political arena.