You grow up in America and you're told from day one, 'This is the land of opportunity.' That everybody has an equal chance to make it in this country. And then you look at places like Harlem, and you say, 'That is absolutely a lie.'
One of the best kept secrets in America is that people are aching to make a commitment, if they only had the freedom and environment in which to do so.
Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.
I think the reason we're so crazy sexually in America is that all our responses are acting. We don't know how to feel. We know how it looked in the movies.
America is not only big and rich, it is mysterious; and its capacity for the humorous or ironical concealment of its interests matches that of the legendary inscrutable Chinese.
Rookies are also coming in from college programs as big stars, whereas when we came in, we were just happy to be there. We were happy to be playing in a big gym, to be on television, to be playing in America.
We were in the heart of the ghetto in Chicago during the Depression, and every block - it was probably the biggest black ghetto in America - every block also is the spawning ground practically for every gangster, black and white, in America too.
We have to have a conversation about whether Obama's plan to increase spending to occupy Afghanistan helps make America a safer country, or not. I think at some point, we may decide that we don't have to have that size military and cost footprint in the country. You look at what you want to accomplish, how many soldiers you need.
There's nothing like New Orleans. When it comes back, it will be a tremendous highlight for America.
Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking.
We did not start a fight with America, and we don't want a war with America. If someone launches an attack, though, we will respond. We will not take rejection or humiliation. We do not want to fight.
I think 'SNL' is so well-known for its musical performances, as well, and people really breaking into America through a really great performance on there. So I think me and Gotye are both really excited to be amongst such company. You know, it's great.
My hero in comic books is Jack Kirby: 'Spider-Man,' 'Fantastic Four,' 'Captain America,' Marvel Comics. He was really the basis for Marvel Comics.
President Reagan is now at rest. We mourn his passing, but we are grateful for the gifts he gave us: a safer world, strong economic base, and a renewed belief in America's greatness.
I don't think there is another person in America that wants to tell this story as much as I do.
Donald Trump giving a speech on Islam is like me giving a speech titled, 'The Best Haircuts to Have If You Really Want to Succeed in Corporate America.' I could do it. But I'd mostly be making it up as I went along.
I always said there's no way I'd work in America because I'm too weird and I'm too old, but somehow it's happened.
As I said, my parents loved that when they came to America, if you worked hard, the only things that could stop you were the limits you placed on yourself.
If business doesn't thrive, it hurts America. We need improved relations, more collaboration, more thought and more consistency as we go about trying to make sure we have the best country in the world. Not scapegoating and finger-pointing.
I think Kennedy being assassinated changed the world. That shot changed everything about America, and made us cynical, made people discontent and angry.
Furthermore, America suffers not only from a lack of standards, but also not infrequently from a confusion or an inversion of standards.
Slavery in West Africa, and in Rome and in the Mediterranean, was something different than slavery in America.
But beyond all that, the question that is continually begged is why isn't America leading the way toward total abolition of nuclear weapons.
Can you tell me what's more unconstitutional than taking away from the people of America their Fifth Amendment rights, their Fourteenth Amendment rights, and the right to equal protection under the law?
It's been a good thing for me to try and understand America.
I think all that we would know of America back home is foreign policy, and maybe the snippets of the madness of political culture.
We should be the pro-legal immigration party. A party that has a positive platform and agenda on how we can create a legal immigration system that works for immigrants and works for America.
If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.
An American Idol is someone that has all the qualities that America thinks is positive, attractive and alluring.
I have never been able to look upon America as young and vital but rather as prematurely old, as a fruit which rotted before it had a chance to ripen.
I want the USDA to look like America, and I want it to be the best, most effectively managed agency in the U.S. That starts with good people.
No section of the American populace has been more completely deceived by the forces interested in keeping the truth from the people than America's youth.
As Oscar Wilde should have said, when bad ideas have nowhere else to go, they emigrate to America and become university courses.
I said that America's role would be limited; that we would not put ground troops into Libya; that we would focus our unique capabilities on the front end of the operation, and that we would transfer responsibility to our allies and partners.
Politicians of both parties told us that free trade with Asia and Latin America would spur economic growth, and maybe it did somewhere else. In our towns, though, factories continue shutting down or moving overseas.
I miss sometimes the buzz of America. A sense that anything can change at the drop of a hat. In a way, it's an exhausting thing to live with.
