I've said many times around the world that like any government, like any country, like, any set of human institutions, we have our flaws. We've operated imperfectly. There are times we've made mistakes.

Right around my first year of college - I remember "Song of Solomon," by Toni Morrison, just moved me tremendously. The power of language and how it can peel back truths, bring things to the surface. So I learned a lot from fiction.

You know, the bowling alley doesn‘t seem to be improving my game. That‘s the one thing I have noticed.

There is a big part of me that has a writer's sensibility. And so that's how I think. That's how I pursue truth. That's how I hope to communicate truth to people.

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.

I think back to the day I drove Michelle and a newborn Malia home from the hospital nearly 11 years ago - crawling along, miles under the speed limit, feeling the weight of my daughter's future resting in my hands. I think about the pledge I made to her that day: that I would give her what I never had - that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father. I knew that day that my own life wouldn't count for much unless she had every opportunity in hers.

It's particularly important that we reach out to everybody in our countries, those who feel disaffected, those who feel left behind by globalization and address their concerns in constructive ways as opposed to more destructive ways.