You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth. And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades.

President Barack Obama at the Democrats' national convention

Texas may be the one place where people actually still have bootstraps, and we expect folks to pull themselves up by them. But we also recognize there are some things we can’t do alone. We have to come together and invest in opportunity today for prosperity tomorrow.

San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro in his keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention

About $50,000 came in right after the primary, but I can't even get the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to return my calls.

U.S. Senate candidate Paul Sadler, in the Houston Chronicle

I don’t talk to him. I just give him money. That way there’s no quid pro quo.

Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons, quoted by D Magazine on his relationship with Rick Perry

Mom wouldn’t stand for it, and neither will we.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards, daughter of former Gov. Ann Richards, on Republican policies, during her speech at the DNC

We're taking people we're mad at and making them into people we're scared of.

Matt Simpson of the Texas ACLU, on the use of solitary confinement in state prisons

It's like trying to lower yourself into a blender.

Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, in the Houston Chronicle on the job ahead for new Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams