After the Cold War, to rally the American people to understand that we had to be a part of solutions. It's one thing to say that we have to run everything, it's another to say we don't want anything to do with it.

We must stop Saddam from ever again jeopardizing the stability and security of his neighbors with weapons of mass destruction.

The day-to-day making of policy is arguing all the time. You're trying to get the right approach and the right answer, and there are moments that aren't very pleasant. But in the end, you look at the overall product.

The main thing is to remain oneself, under any circumstances; that was and is our common purpose.

If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.

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.

Life is grim, and we don't have to be grim all the time.