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This society cannot go forward, the way we have been going forward, where the gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing. It's not politically viable; it's not morally right; it's just not going to happen.

Of course I am frustrated with regard to extreme poverty, to violence that never seems to cease.

I think there is a general unrest or curiosity about what a human future is going to be like, and whether the way we're living is even sustainable.

Poverty is not inevitable. It is a human ill that we can fight if we decide to do so together.

It's time to bring a change because the world is changing. Let's open our minds and live in present.

Our investments in social justice and basic needs are as vital to our future as fiscal and macroeconomic reforms. A nation deeply divided will not stand. And it certainly will not move forward.

When you question this war on poverty, you get all the criticisms from adherents to the status quo who just don't want to see anything change. We got to have the courage to face that down, just as we did in the welfare reform of the late 1990s, and if we succeeded, we can help resuscitate this culture and get people back to work.

You can't not be changed by the experience of seeing extreme poverty. You start to want to think about ways in which you can make the world better.

I'm still thinking and hoping there's an opportunity for people to have better lives and that significant change can occur.

This nation has always struggled with how it was going to deal with poor people and people of color. Every few years you will see some great change in the way that they approach this. We've had the war on poverty that never really got into waging a real war on poverty.