Mazie Hirono

“In our country, racism is never far below the surface.”

“Gee, I wish that life were so black and white that you can't think of a single person who, you know, a good person who has done bad things.”

“It is clear that our national security and economic growth are tied to affordable, abundant energy sources.”

“I've been a fighter all my life. I just don't look like that.”

“That is the great thing about Hawaii. We're so culturally diverse and we inner-marry and appreciate each other's cultures.”

“We should all be treating each other like human beings.”

“I never took a path that was the usual path for someone in my generation. A lot of the women who I went to school with, in those days, it was still the track of becoming a teacher, becoming a nurse. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I didn't go down that path.”

“Most of us look forward to the start of a new year as a clean slate. We reflect on the past 12 months, take stock of where we are, and make new resolutions about how to improve in the coming year.”

“Trump is a major motivation to be speaking out because I so disagree with some of the things that he decides on, and you notice there's a lawsuit on just about everything he does? My gosh.”

“The Senate needs a lot more diversity, and I bring quadruple diversity.”

“Sen. Akaka's care, empathy and compassion were evident to everyone who knew him.”

“Nobody is entitled to a promotion to the Supreme Court.”

“The Trump administration gives me so many more opportunities to be verbal and vocal.”

“There are certain things that should remain forever pristine in your memory, and that's how I look at Hanauma.”

“It's clear that health care is a concern for people all across the country regardless of their political stripe or where they live.”

“We need to have comprehensive immigration reform and that means there should be a path for citizenship. And certainly I support the DREAM Act to help all of these young people who were brought here.”

“My husband is half Korean.”

“We don't need another nuclear arms race to proceed a pace and then to encourage other countries to become very, to develop these kinds of capabilities also. This is not what we need.”

“My deep emotional connection to my mother, a remarkable woman who made a hard choice to save her children, and who valiantly struggled to care for us as a single parent, is the current that has driven my entire life. Everything I've accomplished is a testament to her fortitude.”

“I lost a sister to pneumonia, when she was 2 years old. She died at home, not in a hospital, where maybe her life could have been saved.”