I think that there's a lot of anxiety out there in people wanting their children to be part of the mainstream, to achieve based on the well-worn yardsticks.

[Barack Obama] says that he thinks America felt better, more confident, because Washington was not simply in a gridlock, in stasis, where nothing was being done. And he talks about that as a positive.

It's exciting to work with the kids so devoid of irony, so unguarded. And also terrifying

Two sons, they'll both be presidents after they win their Nobel Prizes. And the daughters, they'll be prima ballerinas before they become the president of Princeton and start their Internet company. And I just started to think about What's the conventional load of those expectations you carry around? You have to pull them out one by one and smash them in the corner. You realize the pile is quite high. But in a way, it becomes oddly liberating to do that.

Every person has their pantheon - the Bible, Hollywood, Shakespeare - their way of understanding the world.

Younger colleagues tended to draw untested self-confidence from their bonuses and prestigious degrees.

The media has become more forceful, has begun to recognize its traditional historic role and act on it, and truth is infectious.