Enjoy your time in public service. It may well be one of the most interesting and challenging times of your life.

Control your time. If you're working off your in-box, you're working off the priorities of others. Be sure the staff is working on what you move to them from the President, or the President will be reacting, not leading.

If the staff lacks policy guidance against which to test decisions, their decisions will be random.

I think we ought to have a new rule: You can ask two questions, and then we can pick the one we want to answer.

Look for what's missing. Many advisors can tell a President how to improve what's proposed or what's gone amiss. Few are able to see what isn't there.

We're not running out of [fixed] targets. Afghanistan is.

We know where they are [Iraq's weapons of mass destruction]. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.