If I wrote a book, I had to be willing at least to talk about some of my struggles, whether in my personal life, health crises, or the deaths of my parents, because there can too easily be a perception of me that my life just went from A to Z uninterrupted, without any ups and downs, and that's not a fair representation.

Any time you have a situation in which you are calling for more time rather than calling for Iraq to immediately comply, it plays into the hands of Saddam Hussein.

it is a longstanding principle that sitting national security advisers do not testify before the Congress.

Most of the people who were responsible for 9/11 are now in custody or have been killed. But there are others, and they plot and they plan, and they hope to pull it off again. And while we have to be right 100 percent of the time, they only have to be right once. So there's no way to overreact to that.

Diplomacy, if properly practiced, is not just talking for the sake of talking.

As secretary of state it's been an enormous honor to represent this great country that I love so much - I have really seen that our great strengths are in the ability of people to reach their potential here.

Human beings are not perfect. Their institutions are not perfect, but they have to keep trying. And America has to help people keep trying.