What I know concerns me. What I don't know concerns me even more. What people aren't telling me worries me the most.

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.

I wish I could set deadlines for the Congress, but that's just not the way the Constitution is written.

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.

There's a lot of books out there about how you lead change in business, but I've certainly not seen any... on how you do that in public institutions.

What I know concerns me. What I don't know concerns me even more. What people aren't telling me worries me the most.

I have tried to maintain civil relationships with everyone I meet - and, even if I violently disagree with them, try to be respectful.