The labor movement means just this: it is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth.

If there is anything in the universe that can't stand discussion, let it crack.

Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection: they have many friends and few enemies.

Two kinds of men generally best succeed in political life; men of no principle, but of great talent; and men of no talent, but of one principle - that of obedience to their superiors.

Last, in restaurants you spend a lot of time dealing with people who are very unhappy. Soup has been spilled on their laps, they've waited 10 minutes to get their check so they can leave, and you learn how to listen, I think, in a much more proactive way than government does.

Being described as a stupid bureaucrat with no link to representative democracy is difficult to take.

When I was a kid, Eisenhower had been President forever, and all of a sudden, everything in the world was all about Jack Kennedy. I was 12, interested in politics; my father was from Massachusetts, had an accent like Kennedy.

I really don't have a lot of interest in national politics, and it's because I'm a skeptic. I think you can accomplish a lot more locally. I don't want to spin the wheels and not get anything done.