America is not like a blanket-one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt-many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.

I hear that melting-pot stuff a lot, and all I can say is that we haven't melted.

Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on the plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American.

Uncle Sam has no conscience. They don't know what morals are. They don't know what morals are. They don't try and eliminate an evil because it's evil, or because it's illegal, or because it's immoral; they eliminate it only when it threatens their existence.

America is indeed a revelation, though not quite the one that was planned. Given a clean slate, man, it was hoped, would write the future. Instead, he has written his past.

America is not a melting pot. It is a sizzling cauldron.

I think in a country like mine, violence is at the root of all human relations.

This country demands that every race measure itself by the American standard.

I fear that we have only awakened a sleeping giant, and his reaction will be terrible.