Physically, I feel probably as good as I've ever felt. And I've got as much energy as I ever did. But what you feel after eight years - and I think you'd feel this no matter what, but anytime you have a big transition, it gets magnified - is time passes.

There are institutional obligations I have to carry out that are important for a president of the United States to carry out, but may not always align with what I think would move the ball down the field on the issues that I care most deeply about.

Iran is the latest expression of a deep, ancient, powerful culture that's different than ours. And we don't know how it's going to play itself out.

To try to blackmail a president into giving them some concessions on issues that have nothing to do with the budget.

You have to have a strong team around you [being a president].

The problem was, and we saw some of this in the immigration-reform issues as well, was they hadn't done sufficient homework to know that I didn't have all the capacity they thought I did in order to just execute this through the stroke of a pen.

What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth.