I call on the Iranian people: it is not too late to replace the corrupt regime and return to your glorious Persian heritage, a heritage of culture and values and not of bombs and missiles... How can a nation allow a regime to instill fear, take away the people's freedom and shock the young generation that seeks its way out of the dictatorial Iran.

Optimists and pessimists die the exact same death, but they live very different lives!

I worked with a group of people who argued day and night - professors, officials, the Minister of Finance - but there were decisions that I had to make.

We should use our imagination more than our memory.

If you eat three times a day, you become fat. If you read three times a day, you become wise. It's better to be wise than fat.

I cannot go to elections with an open stomach. If you want to negotiate we have to conclude it before the elections. I cannot just start the negotiations [with Palestinians] saying we are ready to do this and that and not having any reply.

Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable.