As a child, I could beat most kids in sprints, but overall, wrestling was the most natural sport for me. In fact, I was a pretty good high school wrestler. I was unusually quick and strong.

I'm a straightforward person. I like to be direct with people.

I don't see (subprime mortgage market troubles) imposing a serious problem. I think it's going to be largely contained.

It's a safe banking system, a sound banking system. Our regulators are on top of it. This is a very manageable situation.

Our overriding goal in restructuring our financial architecture should be that taxpayers never again have to save a failing financial institution.

There's always light at the end of the tunnel, right? It just depends on how long the tunnel is.

I never once considered that it was appropriate to put taxpayer money on the line in resolving Lehman Brothers.

In just about every area of society, there's nothing more important than ethics.

Economic growth and environmental protection are not at odds. They're opposite sides of the same coin if you're looking at longer-term prosperity.

Every global concern - economic, environmental or security-related - can be addressed more effectively when the U.S. and China work together.

Regulation needs to catch up with innovation.

Nothing that is God's is obtainable by money.

Alchemy is the art of far and near, and I think poetry is alchemy in that way. It's delightful to distort size, to see something that's tiny as though it were vast.

The Okavango Delta is an astonishing sight: the great Okavango River, rather than flow towards the sea, flows inland, into the sands of the Kalahari.

God takes attendance every day.

It's a terrible shame if you're born the brightest guy in your class. If you're not, then you have to hustle-and that's good.

Imagination should be integrated with life, not turned into a separate activity, art, that monopolizes one's whole existence.

I told you this would happen. But, no, you had to go for the buffet, didn't you?

The two horsewomen of the apocalypse still win, despite their dwindling numbers.

One blob of red in the wrong place and the audience isn't looking at the hero, they're looking at a patch of curtain (or something similar) and your whole effect is lost.