At the end of the day, bin Laden's interest is not Washington and New York, it's the Middle East. He wants Saudi Arabia. He wants to get rid of the House of Saud.

It's a journalist's job to be a witness to history. We're not there to worry about ourselves. We're there to try and get as near as we can, in an imperfect world, to the truth and get the truth out.

Tanks come in two forms: the dangerous, deadly kind and the "liberating" kind.

The Syrian army is tired of corruption. It is tired of party nepotism. It is becoming very angry with those it blames for the war.

Refuse to accept the narrative of history laid down by presidents, prime ministers, generals and journalists.

Everyone outside the Roman Empire was called a barbarian. Everyone outside Obama’s empire is called a terrorist.

War is primarily not about victory or defeat but about death and the infliction of death. It represents the total failure of the human spirit.

And it's true, you hear things in Damascus and, after a few hours, the human double-take stops operating.

Clinton impressed Assad: a young man who appeared to want to be neutral in the Arab-Israeli dispute - an illusion of course, but that's what Assad thought.

When I saw the pictures of New York without the World Trade Center, New York looked like a shadow of itself.

Fundamentalism is not bred in poverty. There are plenty of poor countries in the world that don't have violence because amid the poverty there is a kind of justice and in some countries a democracy.

For all evils there are two remedies - time and silence.

When you get a new worldview you get a new world. It's like the shift from medieval Christianity to the Renaissance and enlightenment.

I understand Jacqueline Kennedy has redone the White House in eighteenth-century style. Why, then, I'd fit in perfectly.

A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others.

In my life I've easily lost 500 pounds but for some reason they keep finding me.

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Lower the bar. Actually spending ten minutes clearing off one shelf is better than fantasizing about spending a weekend cleaning out the basement.

True peacefulness comes from abandoning the illustion that satisfying desires brings pleasure.

As we age, the bright light of youth either burns out or burns stronger - it's our choice.

To be an American is to move on, as if we could outrun change. To attach oneself to place is to surrender to it, and suffer with it.

The use of mental imagery is one of the strongest and most effective strategies for making something happen for you.