"You all want to know what is my dream? Very simple. To walk along the beach, holding the hand of my lover."

"I was not born in a home where there were stereotypes. So that was very useful because it gave me the sense of possibilities, of flying, if I may say, of making my hopes and dreams a reality."

"During my lifetime, I realized that discrimination was not accidental, that there were structural roots and causes to it. So if we wanted to change women's lives, we need to deal with those root causes."

"Having experienced personally and through my family the tragedy of Chile is something always present in my memory. I do not want events of that nature ever to happen again, and I have dedicated an important part of my life to ensuring that and to the reunion of all Chileans."

"I have argued for years that we do not have a health care system in America. We have a disease-management system - one that depends on ruinously expensive drugs and surgeries that treat health conditions after they manifest rather than giving our citizens simple diet, lifestyle and therapeutic tools to keep them healthy."

"For the sake of our health, our children and grandchildren and even our economic well-being, we must make protecting the planet our top priority."

"Up until the Depression, recession had a moral character: it was supposed to purge the body economic of the greed and excess that attends a business expansion."

"What is at stake in the debate over health care is more than the mere crafting of policy. The issue is now the identity of the Democratic Party."