My views on everything from welfare to a balanced budget to affirmative action can be traced to what Buddy and Helen Watts taught me as a young boy growing up poor but proud in Eufaula.

The past two decades revolutionized the way we access information. You and I can have our questions answered with the click of a mouse at any time of day. If America, both corporation and citizen alike, can use these services to solve problems, why can't Washington?

The Republican Party is terrific at determining how a program will impact the federal budget, but we're not nearly as good as the Democrats in explaining to people how our agenda will directly benefit them and their families.

I never got into politics for it to be a career.

I didn't know if I was going to be drafted, period. I remember sitting there and just praying that whatever God has for me to happen, and I didn't get any calls from anybody else the whole round. And then I got a call from New England five hours after the draft started.

The laity ought to understand the faith, and since the doctrines of our faith are in the Scriptures, believers should have the Scriptures in a language familiar to the people, and to this end the Holy Ghost endued them with knowledge of all tongues.

I saw that giving even all my life to God (supposing it possible to do this and go no further) would profit me nothing unless I gave my heart, yea, all my heart, to Him.

Someone told me, 'When you go see Pearl Jam, it's going to be a spiritual experience,' and it was. It was my first time seeing them live, and I've been a lifelong fan. Eddie Vedder's voice is a million times better live, and I couldn't believe the passion he put into every single song.