At a time when the European project is facing challenges, it's especially important to show the benefits of economic integration by continuing to invest in our people and working to reduce inequality, both within and across our countries.

And with iPods and iPads, and Xboxes and PlayStations - none of which I know how to work - information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.

You know, sometimes I'll go to an 8th-grade graduation and there's all that pomp and circumstance and gowns and flowers. And I think to myself, it's just 8th grade ... An 8th-grade education doesn't cut it today. Let's give them a handshake and tell them to get their butts back in the library!

So I think it's important to understand that your duly elected representatives have been consistently informed about exactly what we're doing.

I reiterated our hope that negotiations over the United Kingdom's exit from the E.U. will be conducted in a smooth and orderly and transparent fashion and preserve as closely as possible the economic and political and security relationships between the U.K. and E.U.

I can say with confidence that I never bought into the hype, and I made sure that the people around me didn't buy into the hype, and I did not surround myself with people who fed me the hype. And I'm glad of that as well.

I think the American people can change Washington. But I think that it is not going to change, because somebody from on high directs that change.