I want to succeed. And I want to succeed in the best way possible, without caring whether people call my actions leftist or rightist.

Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.

If you only knew what it did to me to have lived in that house where the police were bursting in to take everyone away! I certainly didn't have a happy and serene childhood.

If by religion we mean a belief in humanity rather than the gods, an effort to make man better and a little happier, then yes, I'm very religious.

The International Control Commission isn't doing anything, it's never done anything. What good does it do to be on it or not? Before opening the embassy in Hanoi, I gave it a lot of thought, but it wasn't really a painful decision. American policy in Vietnam is what it is, in Saigon the situation is anything but normal, and I'm happy to have done what I did.

The civil servant is primarily the master of the short-term solution.

As for the job of prime minister, I like it, yes. But no more than I've liked other work that I've done as an adult.