In the best of all worlds everyone in the Embassy is doing something to assist U.S. exports.

Some day, somebody is going to have to start talking about what happens to us all a decade from now if we let these North Koreans and the Iranians go forward with their nuclear weapons program.

My father was somewhat to the right of Genghis Khan.

And beyond that, the next issue is how do we guarantee one of these weapons, not necessarily this missile, but nuclear weapons ends up in the hands of Al Qaeda or some other terrorist group.

My point here is I think international pressures of our acting unilaterally again are going to be such that the administration will say, well, we just can't take this on now.

Any Ambassador or Foreign Service Officer who has his or her head screwed on right knows that the U.S. position in the world is far more dependent on our ability to compete in world markets.

In the best of all worlds everyone in the Embassy is doing something to assist U.S. exports.

There are sometimes problems for which there is no immediate solution, and there are sometimes problems for which there is no solution.

My own view of this, by the way, is, if the war on terrorism is successful over time, in its own way it's going to box Saddam in in a way that's going to make it much more difficult for him to maintain his power, and that he's going to become increasingly isolated. I think that's going to take time.

We have to spend a lot more time training people to be good advocates of U.S. business.

I think what he's - what he believes, and he may be correct, I don't know, that we have some intelligence information that leads us to know some things about what's going on in Iraq that we haven't revealed to others.

We must advertise to U.S. business that we are there, that our attitude has changed, and that we care. When we are asked to help, we have to perform and provide the right advice.

The question is not really about a shift to the economic cone where officers are writing about the balance of payments and the need for economic stabilization.

The whole nuclear thing is a terrible mess and it's hard for me to understand why it is that we, the United States, seem to be the only ones that are really particularly concerned about it and prepared to do something.

I believe that sooner or later we're going to have to deal with Saddam Hussein, because of his general reputation, because of what I'm convinced he's done with regard to terrorism and the support thereof. But I'm not at all sure I believe that it has to be right now.

The point is, once they have a missile that can hit the United States, we are now back in the kind of game we used to worry about with the Soviet Union, only the Soviet Union was more mature about this whole thing than I think the North Koreans will be.

There's Hezbollah, there's Hamas, there is a whole range of terrorist targets out there related to Palestine and to Israel that we ought to be trying to deal with. And there's a great deal of targets in the Philippines, Indonesia. You name it, there are a number of places where there are targets that we ought to be trying to deal with.

One nuclear war is going to be the last nuclear - the last war, frankly, if it really gets out of hand. And I just don't think we ought to be prepared to accept that sort of thing.

The consequence of a world full of nuclear powers to me is so incomprehensible in terms of the dangers that that implies.

If we had made it clear from the very beginning that we were not going to tolerate another nuclear power on the face of the earth, and had done it in Korea, where we could have accomplished it militarily, if necessary, I would put a stop to it and would have put a stop to it there.

In a time of constrained resources we will have to shift emphasis. but not necessarily from the traditional Political Officer to the traditional Economic Officer.

The fact of the matter is that if we were going to do anything about Gaddafi, it should have been at the beginning. And by fooling around like this as long as we have, we have wasted an opportunity that would have gotten rid of him.

That said, there is a tendency to help the large industrial conglomerate more quickly than the small company you have never heard of. That is something in the culture we are trying to change.

What I can't quite see at this stage is that the evidence, even to the president, seems to be that clear. And if it is that clear, I can't understand why we are not capable of convincing our closest allies that given that evidence, they ought to join us in this effort.

The question really is how do we get Embassy Officers into the minds of the American business community. That is a much more difficult task than understanding a statistical matrix.

There are a lot of other terrorist targets we ought to be focusing on. Well, there is Syria, for example, which is pumping through - because of Iran, is pumping weapons on into Hezbollah and so forth - which is then producing a lot of agony in Palestine and in Israel. We ought to be doing a bit to try to stop that.

What is more important is that Foreign Service Officers understand business, about the needs of U.S. business and how to help U.S. companies make the right connections abroad.

Now there is a cultural change under way in the Foreign Service.

There is a natural partnership between State and Commerce, and the American business community to work together to educate the United States about marketing overseas.

Small- and medium-sized companies do not know what we have to offer and that needs to be changed. We must react just as strenuously on their behalf as we do for larger companies.

Interior decoration partly thrives on being social.

Johnny Colt is a character, and most people in Lynyrd Skynyrd are characters, so he fits in great with us. He's got an attitude, man, and I love it, and that's what we need.

There is something so biologically implausible that your attitude is going to cure a disease. There's a tremendous arrogance to imagine that your mind is all that powerful.

I think my purpose was just to get out and sing. I love to sing. I wasn't even in it for the - you know, the prize. I was, like, 'Hey, man, I'm going to sing.'

May flight of Angels sing thee to thy rest.

If you work well, the country will be in good order, and it will be a blessing to the country. The country needs good care.

No one is depressed when they're asleep, which is why being in bed is such a safe place if you're really down.

The price of indulging yourself in your youth in the things you cannot afford is poverty and dependence in your old age.

There's nothing more boring than actors talking about acting.

The arc of technology is in the direction of unbreakable encryption, and no laws are going to get in the way of that reality.

Concentration is a cornerstone of mindfulness practice. Your mindfulness will only be as robust as the capacity of your mind to be calm and stable. Without calmness the mirror of mindfulness will have an agitated and choppy surface and will not be able to reflect things with any accuracy.

In emerging markets, slow growth in the advanced economies has shut down a traditional development path: export-led growth. As a result, emerging markets have had to rely once again on domestic demand. This is always a difficult task, given the temptation to over-stimulate.

I was 3 when I told my mom that I knew what my dharma was and that I wanted to be an actor.

Sleep is such a luxury, which i cant afford.

When I had nothing else, I had my mother and the piano. And you know what? They were all I needed.

I'm the luckiest guy in the world, and I am going to give away every penny before I die.

I love to show off my ability in a nice way.

The real challenge was to model all the interest rates simultaneously, so you could value something that depended not only on the three-month interest rate, but on other interest rates as well.

It's pointless to have a nice clean desk, because it means you're not doing anything.