One of the unwritten rules in a presidential news conference is that he'll answer questions. If he chooses not to, there's not much you can do about it other than make yourself look like an idiot screaming, which to me is counterproductive.

If you take the conflicts we are used to dealing with, race over the years in America, and you combine that with the desire or aspiration to political power or taking power from other people, which is what politics is all about, you end up with a lot more friction than you would normally see with just straight-ahead politics.

One of the things that Africa needs, everybody seems to agree, is some measure of debt relief.

I think I'm careful. My goal is to try to stay away as much from opinion journalism as possible.

When you are interviewing someone, you have a chance to follow up, to press, to dig in. In a debate there's 30 seconds for the other guy, too. And the goal is to get them to engage with each other, not to engage you necessarily.

It's not surprising that you wouldn't see that side of me on television, but in real life I find the world to be quite a funny place.

I'm not quite certain how you can force a candidate to stick by the rules.