Even when I was at CIA, I'd go to visit foreign leaders and I'd say, 'You know, I'm not a diplomat. I'm just an old CIA guy'... I said, 'If I wanted to be diplomatic, I'd have been a diplomat.'

Some people have said, in so many words, that I'm kind of wooly-headed in believing that the Iranians would see not having nuclear weapons as more in their security interest than not.

Well, I've ruffled a few feathers at all the institutions I've led. But I think that's part of leadership.

One of the toughest battles in intelligence is combating conventional wisdom.

If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan, I think it was the Soviet experience.

And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades.

Defense is not like other discretionary spending.