So the idea that you could put Kurds, Shiite Arabs, and Sunni Arabs in a nice, liberal, federal system in Iraq in a short amount of time, six months or a year, boggles the mind.

To say that you now trust the Russian military command and control system because some Russian general told you from the bottom of his heart that's the case, strikes me as most unrealistic.

I have never belonged to a party. I don't have party affiliation.

I remember serving in Vietnam in that war, and many of us at the major Lieutenant Colonel, colonel level were frustrated that no one in the U.S. wanted to debate it that way.

In World War II in Germany, we had a ration for one U.S. soldier, or one allied soldier for every twenty inhabitants. The ratio in Iraq is about one for a hundred and sixty.

Acts of terror have never brought down liberal democracies. Acts of parliament have closed a few.

Firing off 1,000 or 500 or 2,000 nuclear warheads on a few minutes' consideration has always struck me as an absurd way to go to war.

Military officers from different countries, when they meet each other, tend to sort of fall in love, become mutual admiration societies, at the expense of realities.

The whole notion of land property rights in the Arab world is different from that in Europe.

Second, recent polls over there show that the majority of Iraqis want us to leave precipitously.

I will make a general statement that we have not had anything like the policy of holding people in high office responsible for their acts that I think we should.

When something comes from within, when it is a part of you, you have no choice but to live it, to express it.

Mum used to say we were the same soul split in two and walking around on four legs. It seems unnatural being born together and then dying apart.

The fastest way to improve your relationships is to make others feel important in every way possible.

The American woman is a monstrosity.

If two people who love each other let a single instant wedge itself between them, it grows-it becomes a month, a year, a century; it becomes to late.

Nothing is harder than working with an actor who doesn't take it seriously or show up in the same way that you are.

I wanted to fly when I was little. I still want to fly.

Genetics is crude, but neuroscience goes directly to work on the brain, and the mind follows.

I don't think Warren Buffett should be the treasurer or whatever. Warren Buffett's nuts! Just because he's a freaking billionaire doesn't mean he has common sense.

I have lots of girlfriends - all over the country! You think I'm kidding? I'm dead serious. Girlfriends everywhere.