Sausage making and policy-making shouldn't be seen close-up.

Public servants are paid to serve the American people. Do it well.

If you look ahead 10 years, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the people of Russia had become fans of missile defence.

The price of being close to the President is delivering bad news. You fail him if you don't tell him the truth. Others won't do it.

Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.

You will launch many projects, but have time to finish only a few. So think, plan, develop, launch and tap good people to be responsible. Give them authority and hold them accountable. Trying to do too much yourself creates a bottleneck.

Imagine, a September 11 with weapons of mass destruction. It's not 3,000. It's tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children.