There should not be one new dime in tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires as long as millions of children in America are poor, hungry, uneducated and without health coverage.

I never thought I was breaking a glass ceiling. I just had to do what I had to do, and it never occurred to me not to.

Dr. King used to say, 'I was sitting in the back of the bus, but my mind was always up front.' Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it. You aim high and you work very hard and now I think it's clear that you can be anything you want to.

I grew up in a very religious family and it is the motivating force to every thing I do. I am fortunate to have had adults all around me who really lived their faith, in helping other people and doing the best you can do. The world wasn't so wonderful back then, with segregated rule in the South. But we were never hopeless and we never despaired because we had adults out there struggling with us, being there for us, and buffering us.

Justice is not cheap. Justice is not quick. It is not ever finally achieved.

Children cannot lobby and cannot vote. We must speak for them.

The legacy I want to leave is a child-care system that says that no kid is going to be left alone or left unsafe.