Being under the microscope meant I was never given any slack. I still managed to screw up plenty in life, mind you, but in the things I really cared about - the legal work, or the stories I was telling as a writer, or the office I built in government - I wasn't left a lot of margin for error. It's kept me driven.

It's incumbent on good public servants to maintain their voices and originality of thinking.

I had siblings from South Asia, from East Asia, from depressed communities around America, and you know, we'd have long conversations.

Happy Father's Day -- or as they call it in my family, happy brother-in-law's day.

Manners. Manners will get you through anything.

For every young person I meet, I learn an idea.

A simple leather jacket... has gotten me through cocktail parties in New York and cold nights in Afghanistan.