My life's work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.

Certain people in the United States are driving nails into this structure of our relationship, then cutting off the heads. So the Soviets must use their teeth to pull them out.

You are fortunate to live here. If I were your President, I would levy a tax on you for living in San Francisco!

I certainly wouldn't say that we loved the arms race. Trillions of dollars were used to stoke it. For our economy, which was smaller in size than the American economy, it was a burden. But one cannot agree with the statement that the arms race played the key role in the collapse of the Soviet Union.

On the day I became Soviet leader, in March 1985, I had a special meeting with the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries and told them: 'You are independent, and we are independent. You are responsible for your policies, we are responsible for ours. We will not intervene in your affairs, I promise you.'

Today, peace means the ascent from simple coexistence to cooperation and common creativity among countries and nations.

A new generation of more educated people started to be active. Then society required freedom, society demanded freedom.