Given my last position that I was the first U.S attorney post 9/11 in New Jersey I understand acutely the pain and sorrow and upset of the family members who lost loved ones that day at the hands of radical Muslim extremists. And their sensitivities and concerns have to be taken into account.

I do believe at the end of the night when you're with your family the character gets hung up on the door like a coat and is there to be taken on the next morning.

The family only represents one aspect however important an aspect of a human being's functions and activities. A life is beautiful and ideal or the reverse only when we have taken into our consideration the social as well as the family relationship.

The steady expansion of welfare programs can be taken as a measure of the steady disintegration of the Negro family structure over the past generation in the United States.

The breakdown of the black community in order to maintain slavery began with the breakdown of the black family. Men and women were not legally allowed to get married because you couldn't have that kind of love. It might get in the way of the economics of slavery. Your children could be taken from you and literally sold down the river.

For me nothing has ever taken precedence over being a mother and having a family and a home.

A quest for knowledge is not a war with faith spirituality is not usually an infelicitous amalgam of superstition and philistinism and moral relativism taken outside midfield leads inexorably both to heresy and to secular wickedness which are often identical.

Love like a chicken salad or restaurant hash must be taken with blind faith or it loses its flavor.

I think I've failed every test I've ever taken. If there was a failure I would have been it.

The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.

You know I've learned a lot from every person I've collaborated with from Madlib to Jean Grae and Hi-Tek to Mos to DJ Quik to even somebody like Jermaine Dupri. I've taken something important away from every experience.

The land is ours. It's not European and we have taken it we have given it to the rightful people... Those of white extraction who happen to be in the country and are farming are welcome to do so but they must do so on the basis of equality.

I want to see far more decisions taken far closer to the patients the passengers and the pupils. Far more power for locally and regionally elected politicians who understand best the needs of their areas. And far more say too for the dedicated staff at all levels in health and education.

We need to drive down requirements for the schools. In the 19th century we increased the quality of the schools by higher education saying 'You can't come in unless you have these skills unless you've taken these courses.' We did that in Wisconsin when I was there it helped to transform the secondary school system.

It is of course further indication that a fundamentalist right has really taken over much of the Republican Party People might cite George Bush as proof that you can be totally impervious to the effects of Harvard and Yale education.

We all have a responsibility to volunteer somewhere and I'm lucky that I get the education and get taken to places to see what's out there and see what's happening and to then be a part of it in hopefully an impactful way.

When I was a kid I wanted to be serious like Daniel Day-Lewis. No one really dreams of being a comic actor do they? Now I realise how stupid that is - and it's because comic acting isn't taken seriously enough. It's a discipline. You know instantly - either you're funny and getting the laughs or you're not.