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Through the years I have received my share of recognition for efforts in the fields of sports, the arts, the struggle for full citizenship for the Negro people, labor's rights and the fight for peace.

To receive this award from an organization I admire so much makes me totally happy and grateful.

My mother thinks I'm a national treasure. She's the only one who thinks my Golden Kela award is the greatest gift ever.

I owe a debt of gratitude to two other living Justices. Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg paved the way for me and so many other women in my generation. Their pioneering lives have created boundless possibilities for women in the law. I thank them for their inspiration and also for the personal kindnesses they have shown me.

My wife thought I deserved it, but I always thought the Nobel a Western prize.

I cannot think of anything more difficult than to say something which would be worthy of this impressive and, for me, memorable occasion, and of the ideals and purposes which inspired the Nobel Peace Award.

The first money I ever had was when I received an award from the American Association of University Women.

While all of these are important and significant events, it is the United States' foreign policy that furthers the advancement of freedoms and rights for women that is the most striking for me.

I have received the greatest honor in my life - and the greatest surprise. Never did I dream that the Nobel Prize could be awarded for the reciprocal relations.