The presidents I served under don't have anything to do with my politics.

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.

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.

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.

this is a book about something

A great many people think that polysyllables are a sign of intelligence and refinement so they think they will impress others with their command of obscure words.

Somewhere there is a map of how it can be done.

The only way you improve is to try new things.

I grew up with a deep belief that wherever our troops fought, they were on the side of the angels.

Nobody is going anywhere in 10 years.

Musicians tell me, if what I'm doing is right, they should never have gone to school.

There is more real devotional feeling summoned from the temple of the mind by great music than by any sermon ever delivered.

I had the afro when I was in high school. I had the flattop during a short period in the early '90s. And I've had different variations of dreadlocks. I'll admit to those!

I walked 500 miles just to see a halo, when I opened my eyes I was blind as can be.