When the doors of opportunity swing open, we must make sure that we are not too drunk or too indifferent to walk through.

Black and Jewish leaders have been a coalition of conscience.

I'm a Third World person. I grew up in an occupied zone [Greenville, South Carolina] and had to negotiate with the superpower, really the colonial power.

Sometimes arrogance makes us overreach. George Bush Jr. often tries to suggest the leaders of other countries, and it is just not good diplomacy.

Great things happen in small places. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville.

Many have fought for and even lost their lives to end segregation, to win the right to vote. It disappoints me to now have to cajole people to register and to vote.

Iraq will drive American agenda for a long time because Iraq policy has so damaged America in the Middle East region, left us isolated. We are there now by brute strength, we are not there because we are desired.