Barack Obama's said some very nice things and he says them well. But if you ask me, the reason that we're looking at somebody who is such an inexperienced senator, who has said some very pleasant but not especially sterling or innovative things, the reason that he's considered such a big deal is simply because he's black.

The only way that residual racist feelings could affect legislation, in my opinion, is through a lack of priorities, from not doing things.

People have been warning us that language was going to the dogs ever since Latin started turning into French. Yet the dogs in question never seem to emerge yelping on the horizon.

People think of black English as ungrammatical, but it bears the same relationship to standard English as contemporary Hebrew does to ancient Hebrew.

We must neither behave as children by resisting honesty, nor allow ourselves to be treated as children by having honesty withheld.

English, however, is kinky. It has a predilection for dressing up like Welsh on lonely nights.

Obama is seen as very, very cool. I think a lot of people find him sexy.