Within NATO, our Defence Capabilities Initiative has identified the essential capabilities all Allies must have for modern operations, and Allies are working to meet those requirements.

If we get the capabilities, NATO, along with the European Union, can do amazing things.

And I was asked if I would come and help with the recovery of this great British company, Cable and Wireless, and I'm delighted to become part of the new and very talented management that have been brought in to that company as well.

For years, we have heard warnings that Europe needs to contribute more to NATO's capability.

The rapid dissemination of technology and information offers entirely new ways of production, but it can also bring the spectre of more states developing weapons of mass destruction.

But we acted pre-emptively in Kosovo in 1999 to stop Milosevic from doing what he was doing and increasingly doing the ethnic cleansing in a systematic way.

In sum, as we enter the 21st century, the Euro-Atlantic community - North America and Europe together - has to face some tough challenges when it comes to improving our capability.

What I will remember most from my time in NATO is meeting children in the countries where I've gone to, to Moscow and to Kiev, I've met school children.

Globalisation will make our societies more creative and prosperous, but also more vulnerable.

And most countries are now reducing the number of conscripts and increasing the professionals that are available because they're available on short notice.

For years, European leaders have pointed out that Europe is an economic giant, but a military pygmy.

And, perhaps most importantly, regional conflicts will again and again confront us with a cruel choice between costly engagement and costly indifference.

Well, if the NATO countries don't make more of their troops usable and don't get the equipment to get them fast where the action is, then the organisation will suffer and will increasingly become irrelevant.

You've got to be able to act when it's necessary to act. And you've got to be able to act where the threat is.

Within NATO, our Defence Capabilities Initiative has identified the essential capabilities all Allies must have for modern operations, and Allies are working to meet those requirements.

NATO and the EU have also agreed on permanent arrangements on consultation and cooperation between themselves.

So seven new countries, three of them formerly part of the Soviet Union, and the others part of the Warsaw Pact, will become full members of NATO next year.

I believe that the organisers of this conference have chosen a very timely subject for our discussion - because the 21st century will confront us with an entirely new set of challenges.

I don't think anybody should ever take their life for being bullied. But if it wasn't for my family... and my circle of friends, I could definitely see why someone would see it doesn't get any better than this, but it does. Life is so beautiful.

Age wins and one must learn to grow old.

Mostly I wanted to be a writer, though for a couple of years there I wanted to be an animator, because I loved drawing and capturing beautiful movements.

You don’t have to explain your dreams. They belong to you.

I wouldn't be very happy if a poet read what I had written and said, 'What a peculiar thing to say about this work of mine.'

The trade magazine and all was banned in my house. The first time I read a film magazine was when I was 18.

My dad instilled in me a great sense of humor. I wasn't bullied at school because my outward attitude was confident, and that helps.

I really like the last three Luna records a whole lot, especially 'Penthouse.' I think of all the records I've done, that's my favorite. I don't know why, really. I don't know why some records turn out better than others. It's not a science.

You are ugly when you love her, you are beautiful and fresh, vital and free, modern and poetic when you don't... you are more beautiful as an orphan than as your mother's son.

It's one thing to be this 'tough chick,' but you also have to be likeable.

Ever since Romanticism, an oppositional mode, artists have the right, and indeed the duty, to attack social convention. But it is ridiculous and in fact self-infantilizing for them to expect to be financially supported by the general public whom they are insulting.

As an entertainer, my job is to help people have fun.

There is a disturbing reincarnation of socialist and nationalist dictatorships raising their heads around the world and even in our own back yard. You see it in places like Venezuela and Bolivia, stoked in no small part by Cuba, and also in Central Asia, and troubling trends in Russia and China.

Creative works may indeed be kind of like property but its property that were all building on.

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth'.

When I was 21, I wanted to write like Kafka. But, unfortunately for me, I wrote like a script editor for 'The Simpsons' who'd briefly joined a religious cult and then discovered Foucault. Such is life.

It's no wonder that new ventures such as The Daily look first to Gawker Media when staffing up. We should not wait for a poaching expedition to pay someone what they deserve. I apologize if that has been the case and will do better in 2012.

I just have this thing about injustice. Everybody hates the big injustices - I know. But I hate even the little injustices, even the way a salesclerk treats somebody who is shabbily dressed and happens to go into a nice store.

I remember being really poor until I got my first $250,000 check from Faberge. That was pretty nice; I put it in the bank, and from that moment on, there seemed to be a lot of champagne and limousines in my life.

Our society loves raw character; we love raw women. We don't love our mother because she is hot and sexy: we love our mother because she is our mother. We love our granny because she is our granny. We value her. We don't remember anyone's face from our childhood; we love our granny's face.

No one will ever be able to say what the comandantes would have done with their historic opportunity in Nicaragua if they had not been confronted with civil war.

Sometimes people are very not sure of themselves, so you really have to give them that confidence. Even models - they need to warm up sometimes on photo shoots.

Wearing a great shoe is essential for me.

I'm tired of defending my character. I am what I am. What you see is what you get.