So many great movements didn't succeed the first time, but people kept trying and trying and trying.

If we are going to do big things in our country, we're going to have to think about better ways working across our differences.

The drug war has been a war where the direct casualties have primarily been America's poor; America's minorities; and often, unfortunately, America's vulnerable, in terms of people with disease and addiction and mental health.

My story starts with my dad, a black boy born to a single mother in a small town in North Carolina. It starts with my parents meeting in Washington, D.C., in the '60s, at a time of incredible activism.

I wrote down the grades I wanted in every class.

My parents were obsessed with my education.

My father was not going to let me sit back and just consume my blessings. He wanted me to contribute, and to do that, you have to be mission-oriented.

Newark faces real challenges.

I was born after the Civil Rights Movement.

I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I'm gay, and I say, 'So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I'm straight.'

I am a Yale Law School graduate.

I have got the job of my dreams.

I live in Newark. My family lives in Newark. I own a house in Newark.

If I just retweet the nice things, it rings hollow after a while.

When people jump on your mistakes, don't hide from them; let people know that you're human, too.

Government has got to open up and engage citizenry as partners.

The disgust and latent hostility I felt toward gays were subcategories of hatred, plain and simple.

The gay people with whom I am close are some of the strongest, most passionate and caring people I know, and their demands for justice are no less imperative than those of any other community.

I have seen too many of my male friends - no matter whether they're on the football field or inside a church - bash gays and then revel in their machismo or piety.

Having people that really reflect the spectrum of American experiences is important to have on the Supreme Court.

When I do my hiring in the United States Senate, I look at issues of diversity.

I want to try to live my own values as consciously and purposefully as I can.

Being vegan for me is a cleaner way of not participating in practices that don't align with my values.

I'm very concerned about U.S. food policy.

Food is at the core of our lives in ways we don't always think about - how it affects our environment, how it affects our health and well-being, how it affects the expense of society, the expense of government.

In fact, when I first came to the Senate, people laughed. I had people telling me, 'There's no way you're going to get a comprehensive criminal justice reform bill done.'

I think there's a lot of folks who believe that this is a time that Democrats have to fight fire with fire. As a guy who ran a fire department, that's not a really good strategy.

Democrats need to define themselves - not what they're against or who they're against, but we have got to define ourselves with what we're for.

A more courageous empathy is needed in our country to see the struggles of people from factory towns to farm towns to city towns who can't even afford the rent in their cities anymore because costs are going so high.

We've got to get back to a country that can get things done. And my whole career has been marching and charging at and running toward some of the most difficult problems in America and finding ways to create new coalitions to get things done.

We need a president that can heal, that can bring people together, that can get us back. We have so much common pain in this country that can get us back to a sense of common purpose and common cause.

As soon as I got out of law school, I went to inner city Newark, New Jersey, to become a housing rights lawyer, because people fought for my housing rights, I was going to pay it forward by fighting for others.

I've taken on impossible fights before and won and I've done it not by taking on the tactics and techniques of demagogues and bullies but by calling people to our higher angels, calling to the moral imagination of communities about what we can be and what we can achieve together.

My whole career has been marked by taking on the toughest problems, bringing people together, creating uncommon coalitions to ultimately produce uncommon results - things that people said couldn't be done.

To me, feminism is believing in women's equality, and I ardently ascribe to that belief.

While most men don't have first-hand experience with gender-based discrimination, we can still be powerful allies for advancing women's rights. We need to do a better job of listening to women and standing up for what's right, even when it's not popular or comfortable.

On a daily basis, I think it's really important to be conscious of gender-based discrimination - which presents in sometimes more, but often less, obvious forms - and do everything possible to defeat that discrimination.

Americans are losing faith in this country's ability to work for them.

I think a lot of folks are beginning to feel that the forces that are tearing us apart in this country are stronger than the forces that tie us together. I don't believe that.

I've stayed put in the neighborhood where I first got my start and will never forget the people that believed in me and gave me my first chance.

I am the descendant of slaves, of people that were born from a slave and a slave master.

We can affirm our values as a country and have immigration systems that support our economy, that grow our country, and that make sure that we stay secure and strong.

We need to create an economy that works for everyone, not crony capitalism and unchecked corporate consolidation.

I think patriotism, by its very definition, is love of country. But we seem to have become a country where the highest thing we're reaching for is tolerance.

My faith tradition is love your enemies. It's not complicated for me, if I aspire to be who I say I am. I am a Christian American. Literally written in the ideals of my faith is to love those who hate you. I don't see why that's so shocking.

If you look at the Constitution, the two clauses of the Constitution make it very clear the president shall nominate, and the Senate shall provide advice and consent. It's been since 1888 that a Senate of a different party than the president in the White House confirmed a Supreme Court nominee.

Now, President Obama has to make a decision. He can either propose a nominee who can win over the majority in the Senate or defer his choice to the voters, who in November will elect a new President and a new Senate, which will be responsible for confirming a nominee who will provide balance to the Supreme Court.

I don't think Donald Trump is going to be our nominee.

I think people need to be treated with respect, and that's what we've demanded from everyone.

Industrial hemp is a safe substance with many practical commercial applications.