I am straight forward; I am not manipulative; I am not two-faced. And I think that that has served me well in all of my roles, particularly as a diplomat, because people knew if I said something, I meant it. If I said no, I meant no, and if I said we could make this work, we would make it work.

We are safer if there are not nuclear arsenals around the planet that can be utilized, stolen, sold to terrorists and others who would do harm.

I have been to Libya and walked the streets of Benghazi myself.

You have to make change.

The U.S. cannot go it alone simply when it is convenient.

The youth thing never really, from my vantage point, slowed me down. I think the harder audience for me to gain acceptance from was the career diplomatic corps that worked with and for me in the Africa Bureau.

Bashar al-Assad and those who still stand by him are now responsible for the deaths of more than 20,000 in Syria.