Water, like religion and ideology, has the power to move millions of people. Since the very birth of human civilization, people have moved to settle close to it. People move when there is too little of it. People move when there is too much of it. People journey down it. People write, sing and dance about it. People fight over it. And all people, everywhere and every day, need it.

The shortage of fresh water is the major ecological problem of this moment.

The most important thing is who counts the votes.

Politics is my second love, next to my love for Raisa [Gorbacheva].

Further global progress is now possible only through a quest for universal consensus in the movement towards a new world order.

We need a new system of values, a system of the organic unity between humankind and nature and the ethic of global responsibility.

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.'