American Quotes

I knew that there were several, among African-American leaders, who had been put out by me because of my failure or reluctance to endorse Sen. Kerry.

I didn't want to engage in a campaign where I was defending myself on those issues at every turn, so I just decided that I'd switch and run as a Republican.

I didn't have the base I needed to win the election.

I absolutely intend to return every penny given to me by my Democratic colleagues and Democratic leaders.

When I was discharged, I attended the University of Paris and met a beautiful Parisian girl, Janine. We soon married and eventually returned to the States.

We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.

Using the device of an imaginary world allows me in some strange way to go to the central issues - it's one of many ways to express feelings about real people, about real human relationships.

There's this huge number of desperate people.

Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain, and so many others were my dearest friends and greatest teachers.

My parents were horrified when I told them I wanted to be an author.

My family pleaded with me to forget literature and do something sensible, such as find some sort of useful work.

My concern is how we learn to be genuine human beings.

Most of my books have been written in the form of fantasy.

King Arthur was one of my heroes - I played with a trash can lid for a knightly shield and my uncle's cane for the sword Excalibur.

It was 1943. The U.S. had already entered World War II, so I decided to join the army.

If writers learn more from their books than do readers, perhaps I may have begun to learn.

I loved all the world's mythologies.

I decided that adventure was the best way to learn about writing.

Eventually, I was sent to Wales and Germany, and after the war, to Paris.

All that writers can do is keep trying to say what is deepest in their hearts.

After seven years of writing - and working many jobs to support my family - I finally got published.

After I saved some money, I quit work and went to a local college.

Well, here's what I think. I mean, the people are saying, 'We don't want it,' and the Democrats are saying, 'We don't care. We're going to pass it anyway.' And so for the next three months, Washington will be consumed with the Democrats trying to jam this through in a very messy procedure an unpopul

We do all the appropriating. They do not do any of it down at the White House. They send a budget up here, and we don't have to pay any attention it to at all. We do what we want to do.

We are the only country in the world that has taken people from so many different backgrounds, which is a great achievement by itself, but an even greater achievement is that we have turned all of that variety and diversity into unity.

The job of mayor and Governor is becoming more and more like the job of university president, which I used to be; it looks like you are in charge, but you are not.

The goal with a big piece of social legislation is to have a bipartisan result, so the country will accept it.

Sooner or later, I need to begin to do what any candidate does in a presidential race; I need to begin to win.

September 11 is one of our worst days but it brought out the best in us. It unified us as a country and showed our charitable instincts and reminded us of what we stood for and stand for.

Put too many one-size-fits-all jackets on Americans and the place explodes.