Joe Biden Excerpts from his Book Promises to Keep On overcoming a childhood stutter:
"I was going to beat the stutter. And I went at it the only way I knew how: I worked like hell. Practice, practice, practice. I would memorize long passages of Yeats and Emerson, then stand in front of the mirror in my room on Wilson Road and talk, talk, talk."
On losing his wife and daughter:
"Most of all I was numb, but there were moments when the pain cut through like a shard of broken glass. I began to understand how despair led people to just cash it in; how suicide wasn't just an option but a rational option. But I'd look at Beau and Hunter asleep and wonder what new terrors their own dreams held, and wonder who would explain to my sons my being gone, too. And I knew I had no choice but to fight to stay alive."
On his first Senate floor speech:
"That was the moment I realized that I was a senator -- and I felt inadequate. How could I, Joe Biden -- of Scranton, Claymont, and Mayfield -- be taking my place alongside Calhoun, Clay, Webster, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson? I literally had goose bumps; I had the sensation of speech, but I'm not sure I knew what I was saying."
On healing from his wife and daughter's loss:
"Somewhere in the middle of all that running around, I began to make my peace with God or with myself... Bad things happen. Millions of people had it worse than me. Get up and keep moving, I kept telling myself, and be alive."
On marrying for a second time after the death of his first wife, Neilia:
"That's when I realized exactly what Jill's love had done for me; it had given me permission to be me again. However deep the pain of Neilia's loss, I was lousy at building protective walls around my heart. My whole life -for good and ill -- I had been driven by my passions, as if I needed to take the risk on all the big things in life to feel alive. Jill made me see that passion was still the controlling feature of my existence."
On fighting Supreme Court nomination of Judge Robert Bork:
"If there were no Constitution, I believed, human beings would still have a right to marry whom they want. We would still have the right to see our biologi-cal offspring, the right to speech, and the right to practice a religion. Judge Bork, however, thought we have our rights because the Constitution relinquishes them to us -- and jealousy. As a judge, he would not recognize fundamental human rights beyond what was spelled out in the Constitution."
On quoting British Labour leader Neil Kinnock without attribution:
"All I had to do was gather the reporters and say, 'Hey, folks, I want to make it clear, on the record that, that was a bit I end my stump speeches with, and I should have credited Kinnock.' I didn't say, 'as Kinnock said.' I should have. I always do. It's his language.' "I wish I had."
On lessons learned from his near-fatal aneurysms:
"Patience had never been my strength, but somewhere in that second hospital stay I had started to think about the virtue of being in less of a hurry ... The presidency, for instance, could wait: There would be another time if I really wanted it. The restoration of my reputation would be a long process. Time would tell."
On U.S. involvement in Yugoslavia:
"The truth is, in 1992 it was up to the United States to lead. As long as there is one good actor in the world, every other nation can play at the mar-gins. Every other nation can act out of realpolitik and the basic decency in the world won't collapse. But when every country is acting with nothing but self-interest in mind, it's a much more dangerous world."
On stating in 2004 that he would fire former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
"President Bush asked why I'd do that, and I looked at [Vice President Dick] Cheney. 'Mr. Vice President,' I said, 'full disclosure: Were you not a constitutional officer, I'd fire you, too. Simple reason: Mr. President: Can you name me one piece of advice given about the war in Iraq that's turned out to be true...?' "Cheney just sat there, rocking, not saying a word."
On running for president:
"In 1987 I couldn't yet visualize myself doing the job of president, but by the end of that campaign I could picture in my head how I'd get the
nomination. When I started to campaign in 2005, it was the reverse. Doing the job I could see. I was absolutely prepared for that. But I wasn't yet entirely sure how to get my message through the media din that surrounds voters."