It was President [Bill] Clinton and the United States congress in 1998 which said that the regime has to be changed because the regime would not give up its weapons of mass destruction. We came into office in 2001 and kept that policy because Saddam Hussein had not changed.

Diplomacy never stops, and, with or without an election, it never stops.

Decision-making is lonely.

Have a sense of humor to break the tension in times of great toil.

The essence of leadership is building bonds of trust in your organization.

Too often we act - ask our schools to be truant officers, our teachers to be truant officers, because we're giving them children who have, you know, they're not ready to learn. And if they're not ready to learn by the third grade, they know they're behind.

If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.