Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism - it is an important part of promoting peace.

Religious freedom doesn't mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.

I think, as you get older, that's when your ambitions become "peculiar".

On Syria, it's clear that the indiscriminate attacks on civilians by the [Bashar] Assad regime and Russia will only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe and that a negotiated end to the conflict is the only way to achieve lasting peace in Syria.

That is another theme in the book [Dreams from My Father]. How do we exercise more empathy in our public discourse? How do we get the black to see through the eyes of the white? Or the citizen to see through the eyes of the immigrant? Or the straight to see through the eyes of the gay? That has always been a struggle in our politics.

If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.