Bill Ayers

I suffer from a genetic flaw, which is that my mother was a hopeless Pollyanna.

I didn't respond to people thrusting microphones at me and asking me questions that were unanswerable in a sound bite.

I was a militant.

I was involved in the anti-war movement.

I knew Barack Obama, absolutely. And I knew him probably as well as thousands of other Chicagoans.

I wish I had been wiser. I wish I had been more effective, I wish I'd been more unifying, I wish I'd been more principled.

Teaching has always been, for me, linked to issues of social justice. I've never considered it a neutral or passive profession.

Nothing is more boring than some old person going on and on about the way things used to be.

I was arrested in 1965 for opposing the war in Vietnam. There were 39 of us arrested that day. But thousands opposed us. And the majority of the people in the country supported the war then.

Terrorists destroy randomly.

Nixon probably was a nice guy.

I find some unity with Ron Paul.

Large numbers of people are broken from the notion that the system is working for people, that the system is just or humane or peaceful.

We should open our eyes, see what's in front of us, and act.

I would say for the young: Don't be straight jacketed by ideology. Don't be driven by a structure of ideas.

Two thousand people a day were being murdered in Vietnam in a terrorist war, an official terrorist war.

I don't regret setting bombs.

I have an addiction to caffeine.

Chicago '68 was a relatively small demonstration for its time, but I've talked to millions of people who claim they were there because it felt like we were all there. Everyone from our generation was there and was at Woodstock.

I voted for Obama and I was delighted that he's been elected.