There are only two reasons to sit in the back row of an airplane: Either you have diarrhea, or you're anxious to meet people who do.

Deng Xiaoping thought of himself as a great revolutionary and a great reformer. He had dismantled the Chinese communist management of the economy. In my next-to-last conversation with him, which was about six months before Tiananmen Square, he said to me that his aim would be the next phase to reduce the Communist Party to philosophical issues. And I said, "What's a philosophical issue?" And he said, "Well, like if we make an alliance with Russia." Given his view of Russia, that was not the likeliest thing that would ever happen.

The idea of abstract power only exists for academics, not in real life.

Whenever a new president comes in, people that are used to the previous president wonder if he has the same capacity.

Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered.

The essence of Richard Nixon is loneliness.

I do not stand on protocol. If you just call me Excellency, it will be okay.