I describe myself as a "spiritual sampler," raised Catholic, been Baptist, Methodist, and a Unity member.

Sometimes, I repeat myself, and that was a second elimination [of Barack Obama]. I worked with a team, including a great editor who, as the project came together, suggested other additions and eliminations. It was a process.

References to everybody just disturb me, and it also disturbs me that the people who make policy are not the same people who live policy. When we talk about everybody, we are leaving a whole lot of bodies out.

North Carolina is a fascinating state, because you've got these urban areas. You've got the Piedmont Triangle - Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point.

Do you really think I'm going to go on record telling you the craziest thing I've ever done. There's a reel in my brain, and I think I'll keep it there. No regrets, though.

It was quite a process to narrow more than 400 columns down to 80. I write weekly, though, and I don't always write about President [Barack] Obama, so that was the easy elimination.

If some of the recovery money had gone to cities instead of states, the urban population, read "Black" and "Brown," would be better off with recovery jobs.