Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread and deepseated, that it is invisible because it is so normal.

Don't list to those who say YOU CAN'T. Listen to the voice inside yourself that says, I CAN.

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.

I have never cared too much what people say. What I am interested in is what they do.

To label family planning and legal abortion programs "genocide" is male rhetoric, for male ears.

Laws will not eliminate prejudice from the hearts of human beings. But that is no reason to allow prejudice to continue to be enshrined in our laws - to perpetuate injustice through inaction.

I am and always will be a catalyst for change.