Most of the people of this world are coated round and round with self-esteem, and they're afraid to admit any understanding of the things which aren't good.

Chicago is many things to many people, and to me, it is a place where you can write.

I'm an American. We've translated democracy and brotherhood and equality into enterprise and opportunity and success - and that's getting Americanised.

There is good and there is bad in every human heart, and it is the struggle of life to conquer the bad with the good.

When I was growing up, I thought everything was a life of friendship, respect, and sharing. But I discovered that unfortunately, you have people who aren't behaving in the same way but have hatred.

As soon as you start feeling like you can't trust the person and you need to check his phone or have his Facebook password or look through his messages - as soon as that trust barrier is broken - it's hard to keep a relationship going after that.

When you get together with childhood friends, for example, there's an intimacy that you instantly have because you share something really profound in your past. There's a shortcut to emotional intimacy if you share your past with somebody. It's really empowering when you're reunited with people who share that.

If Reagan had intelligence information that showed that the upheaval in Egypt is actually Democratic in spirit, then he would have, I believe, turned his back on Mubarak, even though there's a long friendship between the United States and Egypt.