No policy has proved more successful in making friends for the United States, during the cold war and since, than educating students from abroad at our colleges and universities.

A wild and crazy weekend involves sitting on the front porch, smoking a cigar, reading a book.

Well, Israel, obviously, thinks of the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel.

I've spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position. And it didn't have to look over its shoulder because our economy was so strong.

I had no difficulty as Secretary of Defense moving from the Bush administration to the Obama administration.

I think in the context of senior government positions, I think an anecdote of what I told President-Elect Barack Obama when we had our first meeting. And I said, "You don't know me. Can you trust me? Why do you think you can trust me?" and so on. But at the end, I said, "You can count on me to be loyal to you. I will not leak. I will keep my disagreements with you private. And if I cannot be loyal, I'll leave." Loyalty means doing what you think is in the best interest of that person as well as the country.

I've seen, all too often in my career, people coming in to lead agencies and organizations and trying to impose change from the top down. Never works. You never have enough time.