Maliki saw Islamic State as a way to exert pressure. If I am not re-elected, terror will befall you - that was his message.

To handle the economy and services in a country like Iraq requires delegation of authority and the choice of competent people.

Do not seek to find a reason why elections are not possible. Seek to make them possible, and they will be possible.

The view that we hold in Iraq now is this - that democracy is associated with elections. I believe that elections are possible.

And we are grateful to the American young men and women who are risking their lives to give the Iraqi people this chance, this dream of democracy in Iraq now.

Iraq will not allow any action on its soil that could harm the U.S. We don't want any action from our soil to target our neighbors.

I strongly believe that a federal structure based on administrative and geographic lines with strong powers for the federated states will be the best solution for Iraq.

What was said before is not important.

The battle against terrorism is not only a military fight but primarily a battle of information.

Many Sunnis joined Islamic State because they felt they were being treated poorly. Winning back their trust is the primary task of the new government. That will be difficult, but it is possible.

American companies will have a big shot at Iraqi oil.

After all, there are those people we like and dislike, there are those people we love, and then there are those we recognize. These are the unbreakable connections.

Do not trust a person who never fails. Failure is the incubator for character development.

Drunkenness is not a new vice. Its ravages have always been a scourge on the human race . . .Alcohol is a killer, a murderer.

Intellectual and moral growth is no less indispensable than material amelioration...If three is anything more poignant than a body agonizing for want of bread, it is a soul dying of hunger for light.

God's the seamstress that tailor-fitted my pain.

Two drinks a day. Two drinks a day. TWO DRINKS A DAY! It doesn't work! Not when you want eleven, and not when you start shopping for wine glasses in the vase department at Bloomingdales.

Fathering is the most masculine thing a man can do.

There's a black rose growing in your garden.

It's always nice to end your sentences with an exclamation mark, and not a comma.

Heaven lieth at the feet of mothers.