The time has come for a public-private community partnership to fix this country and put it back to work.

I learned more in those six months [ in the White House] than in the prior six years. I don't think that anybody who has had the privilege to serve the country at that level should walk out and behave like a crybaby. And I plan to continue to serve the country in other capacities.

My point is you can fight racism and sexism and homophobia more effectively if you're doing it from the position that you're standing for the dignity of all people, and that you're actually standing for the underdog in the red states and the blue states. I think it's more effective when you're anti-racism and anti-sexism and anti-homophobia and that is the centerpiece for a project to uplift all humanity, and frankly to defend and uplift the children of all species.

There are only two ways to have a middle class in your country: either you have highly skilled manufacturing jobs, or you have a highly skilled, well trained, knowledge-based workforce. In other words, college.

Well, we in America are about to break up with oil. Why not break up with poverty and discrimination too?

I don't like to comment on a specific local issue because there are plenty of people already working on the problem who know a lot more about it than I do.

Now is not the time to shrink from the challenge of saving our only home in the universe. Now is not the time to pull into ourselves, retreating into either survivalist or escapist mode. To the contrary, this is the time for titans, not turtles. Now is the time to open our arms, expand our horizons, and dream big. Big problems require big solutions.