Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face.
Magic lies in challenging what seems impossible.
I think the legacy of the civil rights movement is that now whites are more open to being represented by people of color or people who are women or, again, non-traditional candidates.
My parents were always philosophizing about how to bring about change. To me, people who didn’t try to make the world a better place were strange.
The Islamic community today is faced with a new version of an old struggle. My late mother used to say it doesn’t matter whether you came to this country on the Mayflower or on a slave ship, through Ellis Island or the Rio Grande. We’re all in the same boat now.
There are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, just permanent interests.
Well, if you pick a fight with somebody that’s smaller than you and you beat them, where’s the honor in that?
The really important victory of the civil rights movement was that it made racism unpopular, whereas a generation ago at the turn of the last century, you had to embrace racism to get elected to anything.
To me, that means getting back to the point where our Constitution means that you don’t tap people’s phones and poke into their e-mail and you don’t arrest people and keep them hidden for a year and a half without charging them.
If I lose, I’m going to retire from politics, practice law, and wear bright leather pants.
All I really want to be is boring. When people talk about me, I’d like them to say, Carol’s basically a short Bill Bradley. Or, Carol’s kind of like Al Gore in a skirt.
There are a number of steps that we can take to reinvigorate and rebuild the economic and the physical infrastructure of our country and then to rebuild us, frankly, on a spiritual level.
I want to rebuild America.
It’s time to take the ‘Men Only’ sign off the White House door.
I was the only person of color in the Senate, and my colleagues were Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms and Trent Lott.