Its up to any government to decide how to react to the denial of basic human rights anywhere in the world, including Egypt.

Psychology is as important as substance. If you treat people with respect, they will go out of their way to accommodate you. If you treat them in a patronizing way, they will go out of their way to make your life difficult.

The gravest threat faced by the world is of an extremist group getting hold of nuclear weapons or materials.

Nobody wants any country to have nuclear weapons.

Once in a while, I have to pinch myself to remind myself I am Nobel laureate, but that is not part of my work plan every day.

Almost all of the liberal and Christian members of the constitutional commission have withdrawn, because we all fear that the Muslim Brotherhood will pass a document with Islamist undertones that marginalizes the rights of women and religious minorities. Who sits in this group? One person, who wants to ban music, because it's allegedly against Sharia law; another, who denies the Holocaust; another, who openly condemns democracy.

In my view, stability only comes with a government that is elected by the people and works for the people.