The greater concerns in China and Taiwan are on the political side, not on the economic side.

Harvard is first and foremost a university and not a consulting operation, and our job here is to teach and to research and to create knowledge on Asia in conjunction and in cooperation with scholars as well as with political, intellectual, and cultural leaders in Asia.

And look at the mess that Russia is; most Chinese don't want to follow that.

So, anything that avoids a conflict that could draw in, unhappily again, outside powers such as the United States or revisit, for example, Japan's interests in the Taiwan area would be the last thing that anyone would want.

Now, I believe that war is never inevitable until it starts, but there has been a great proclivity in human history, and including in recent history, for war.

I don't believe that economic and cultural interaction automatically brings greater peace and understanding, although it may help in that regard.

Taiwan is a major economy.

There is no question that Taiwan is a state in any political science definition of a state.

You could argue that war is always an irrational act, and yet many states enter into military conflict out of rational calculation or national interest or the stability or longevity of their regime.

The reform of state industry, and most directly related to that, the banking sector, is enormously daunting.

The greater concerns in China and Taiwan are on the political side, not on the economic side.

I would hope we would begin a series of projects that would do more to bring the different parts of the university together in the study of Asia, for example, in the study of the professions in Asia.

Another goal is to look to the resources we have and to see how we could do better to plan, in a sense, for the faculty and infrastructure that we will need to study Asia well into the 21st century.

East Asia has prospered since the end of the Vietnam War, and Northeast Asia has prospered since the end of the Korean War in a way that seems unimaginable when you think of the history of the first half of the century.

The Chinese government since 1979 has been very successful in economic development, and successful enough, simply by surviving, in the realm of political development.

The most important thing that certainly the United States and other Asian and Pacific actors have done is to urge that whatever happens, however the dispute is resolved, that it be resolved peacefully.

The PRC is the big brother in this relationship, and it has the capacity to be generous to Taiwan on this issue in a manner that might do much to defuse that issue internally in Taiwan.

So, I think China desperately needs to legitimize some form of opposition.

A war in the Taiwan Strait would destroy China's international relations overnight. It would destroy Chinese - Japanese relations, not to mention Chinese - American relations.

I want to have a nice country home one day, yeah.

A moment's beginning ends in a moment

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.

Thou art not for the earth, nor for the Heaven the world is for thee, thou art not for the world.

I can't imagine anybody who ends up being an artist who didn't pass through a time of geekiness.

John Kerry only went to prep schools because he had an aunt who had the money to pay for his way into those prep schools.

Digital texts are all well and good, but books on shelves are a presence in your life. As such, they become a part of your day-to-day existence, reminding you, chastising you, calling to you. Plus, book collecting is, hands down, the greatest pastime in the world.

Exclusiveness in a garden is a mistake as great as it is in society.

Modeling is a lonely business.

I grew up as a country boy.

Do not be surprised if I adore as God what you called humanity, since you talked of humanity as if it was empty of spirit and you think in the flesh according to the flesh.

I'd always been on the giving end of music and creating.

You remember had this gigantic clock in the arena showing the size of the national debt. And Paul told America, if you elect Republicans, we can fix that. But, if Paul Ryan was being honest, he would've pointed to the debt clock and said, we built that.

To be clear, I normally climb with a rope and partner. Free-soloing makes up only a small percentage of my total climbing. But when I do solo, I manage the risk through careful preparation. I don't solo anything unless I'm sure I can do it.

I feel like Sony appreciates good music from a talented artist.

I did a film called 'Days and Nights,' which is a modern-day retelling of and inspired by Chekhov's 'The Seagull.'

The selfishness of an age that has devoted itself to the mere cult of pleasure has tainted the whole human race with an error that makes all our acts more or less lies against God.

Venice its temples and palaces did seem like fabrics of enchantment piled to heaven.

The mistake a lot of politicians make is in forgetting they've been appointed and thinking they've been anointed.

Apart from death and taxes, the one thing that's certain in this life is that I'll never be a fashion icon.

I hope I have quite a few great roles to come.

For a dyed-in-the-wool author, nothing is as dead as a book once it is written. She is rather like a cat whose kittens have grown up.

I think Wall Street is very important, especially to tech companies. Wall Street will get in their rhythm and go fund tech companies, and tech companies will go create jobs and employ a lot of people, so there's that aspect of Wall Street.

Jokes are a lot about meaning. I think if we understand what jokes mean and why they work, we'd understand everything else. Genuinely I do.