Of my two `handicaps,' being female put more obstacles in my path than being black.

I had met far more discrimination because I am a woman than because I am black.

It is not heroin or cocaine that makes one an addict, it is the need to escape from a harsh reality.

That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black, and a woman proves, I would think, that our society is not yet either just or free.

The liberals in the House strongly resemble liberals I have known through the last two decades in the civil rights conflict. When it comes time to show on which side they will be counted, they excuse themselves.

As things are now, no one can tell to whom members of Congress are responsible, except that it does not often appear to be to the people. Everyone else is represented in Washington by a rich and powerful lobby, it seems. But there is no lobby for the people.

I love America not for what she is, but for what she can become.