It's one thing to be religious, but it's another thing to make religion your policy.

There are a lot of similar aspects in all the religions. The question is which side of it you hold up.

I think that we had a different view of what the 21st century could be like, with much more of a sense, from our perspective, of trying to have an interdependent world: looking at solving regional conflicts, having strength in alliances, operating within some kind of a sense that we were part of the international community and not outside of it.

My parents were of the generation who thought they were the children of a free Czechoslovakia, the only democracy in central Europe.

There is a significant moral difference between a person who commits a violent crime and a person who tries to cross a border illegally in order to put food on the family table. Such migrants my violate our laws against illicit entry, but if that's all they do they are trespassers, not criminals. They deserve to have their dignity respected.

China is in its own category - too big to ignore, too repressive to embrace, difficult to influence, and very, very proud.

Whatever the job you are asked to do at whatever level, do a good job because your reputation is your resume.