Well of course New Zealand isn't anti-American.

We just sent our condolences to the President of the United States and the American people on what is a terrible, terrible tragedy.

As New Zealanders, we've been in on the United Nations from the very beginning, played a role in the drafting of the charter - it means a lot to us that those processes are followed.

If the market is left to sort matters out, social injustice will be heightened and suffering in the community will grow with the neglect the market fosters.

Well of course New Zealand isn't anti-American.

We don't want to deal with a separatist party.

Well in the end the world can crank itself up to sanctions, as it has with Zimbabwe, another sad case.

'Never look back' is my philosophy.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries on earth. Security issue or no security issue, there would need to be a focus on it.

Although biodiversity loss continues globally, many countries are significantly slowing the rate of loss by shoring up protected natural areas and the services they provide, and in expanding national park systems with tighter management and more secure funding.

Any serious shift towards more sustainable societies has to include gender equality.

Business can talk itself into a blue funk.

Health and education are always issues.

I deeply detest social distinction and snobbery, and in that lies my strong aversion to titular honours.

I have no beliefs of a religious kind.

I think it's inevitable that New Zealand will become a republic and that would reflect the reality that New Zealand is a totally sovereign-independent 21st century nation 12,000 miles from the United Kingdom.

I think that generally New Zealand is respected for the positions it takes because it thinks them through.

I think the issue of North Korea is one where the international community as a whole has to work to resolve the crisis.

I'm not into power for the sake of it.

I've been round Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and China in the last few months and the message that I've been taking is that New Zealand is building an up market dynamic into a connected economy. And that we are not the old-fashioned, ship mutton kind of product the people associate their export in work.

If you neglect those who are currently poor and stable, you may create more poor and unstable people. There has been a tremendous concentration of donor interest in countries that are seen as particularly fragile - but it becomes harder to mobilise money for sub-Saharan, plain poor countries.

In terms of having views and being prepared to express them, yes, I think New Zealand's had a leadership role in a lot of things.

It's fair to say that, for much of my lifetime, New Zealand certainly was a property-owning democracy and working people, ordinary people, had assets.

New Zealand's been pretty quiet on human rights issues, which we will be taking rather more interest in, and in international labor issues.

Of course I have an opinion on many things but I don't micromanage.

Of course as a small country you're not necessarily in the strongest negotiating position unless you're negotiating with other small countries.

The Prime Minister is head of team but its not a one woman act. I've been called all those things. Intellectual, sharp-tongued, all true. But what New Zealander is like is to know that someone is in charge and in the end the buck stops with the Prime Minister.

There is also a marked global trend towards sustainable agriculture, building on traditional methods which use fewer chemical inputs, carefully manage soil and water resources, and work hand-in-hand with nature.

We're a nation in search of an identity, but it's quite exciting. I don't regard it as a problem. It's a challenge.

Take care that the face that looks out from the mirror in the morning is a pleasant face. You may not see it again during the day, but others will.

I think a lot of people want me to be like the characters in the books: they want that kind of congruence.

It's useful for activists just to be out there to keep you mindful and not get complacent, even if ultimately you think some of their criticism is misguided.

Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.

It is much more fun to write about villains then heroes. The villains are the ones that think out the scheme, and the heroes just kind of come along for the ride.

There is not a fiercer hell than the failure in a great object.

Consciences keep silence more often than they should thats why laws were created.

Amadu is all about the family. I've never known love like that before, and it made me think, 'I want a bit of that'. It kind of forced me to get to know my family again. Another reason why he's so lovely.

It is the most wonderful feeling in the world, knowing you are loved and wanted.

We have in the last two years, we have passed 350 legislation in the parliament, most of which deal with democratization, human rights, and of course, economy.

Violet will be a good color for hair at just about the same time that brunette becomes a good color for flowers.

Ive come to the conclusion that life is for the taking and just too short to dwell on the negative.

The split between religion and science is relatively new. Isaac Newton, who first worked out the laws by which gravity held the planets and even the stars in their traces, was sufficiently impressed by the scale and regularity of the universe to ascribe it all to God.

If I despised myself, it would be no compensation if everyone saluted me, and if I respect myself, it does not trouble me if others hold me lightly.

I don't call myself Latin, I call myself Puerto Rican.

I don't take acting classes - I'm quite an autodidact. I prefer to learn from other actors by watching various movies. Evaluate my acting, spot the flaws and fix them.

What we do comes out of who we believe we are.

My future daughter is not going to go through what I did.

There's something about the struggle of a sensitive man that we really relate to.

A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive.