Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I never set out to work in the White House.
Anthony Bourdain was the one who hooked me on Laos.
Havana is a source of great pride to the Cuban people.
Laos is the ghost of American military interventions past.
I had originally been looking at writing, including fiction.
Cuba has long played an outsized role in the world's imagination.
The world order and American actions in the world have deep wiring.
We want a rules-based order in Asia-Pacific like we have had in the Atlantic.
Increased remittances to Cuba from the United States has helped Cuban families.
A critical part of our relationship with Laos involves addressing the legacy of war.
Where civil society is welcomed, communities are more safe, more secure, and more prosperous.
I was a relatively anonymous guy, and for whatever reason, I became one of the villains for the Right.
Talking and diplomacy is often seen as a concession in America, in a way that it is not in other places.
The Catholic Church played an integral role in supporting the opening between the U.S. and Cuban governments.
I don't think people realize how many decisions the president of the United States makes about military action.
'Make America great again,' is not that different from Putin's nostalgia for the Soviet Union or tsarist Russia.
The only place in the world where, I think, leaders have preferred Trump are in Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia and Israel.
There are a very limited number of people in senior roles at the White House, and time is their most precious asset.
Cuba is only 90 miles from Florida, but for a long time, the distance between our two countries seemed a lot greater.
The complete lack of governance in huge swaths of the Middle East - that is the project of the American establishment.
Our Cuba policy was a major obstacle to getting things done in the hemisphere and a source of tension around the world.
For more than fifty years, our policy towards Cuba was not making life better for Cubans. In many ways, it was making it worse.
What I do miss is foreign travel, because there really is no substitute for showing up somewhere and representing the United States.
When it comes to Israel's security, our military and intelligence cooperation, that's off limits. That's protected. That's sacrosanct.
For more than fifty years, Americans and Cubans have been isolated from one another even though Cuba is only 90 miles away from Florida.
One of the most depressing things about President Donald Trump's decision to roll back elements of the Cuba opening is how predictable it was.
America's trade policy has an enormous impact on the economic well-being of the American people and the strategic interests of the United States.
I had the Secret Service actually patrolling my block at some point. I didn't sign up for that. I went to work to write speeches for Barack Obama!
In the course of a presidency, a U.S. president says millions of words in public. You never know which of them end up cementing a certain impression.
The TPP will be good for the American economy, the Vietnamese economy, and the labor and environmental standards that make life better for our people.
Where civil society thrives, governments operate with more transparency and accountability. This creates a tangible impact on the lives of everyday citizens.
It was wrenching to read about the brutality of Assad every morning, to see images of family homes reduced to rubble. I felt we had to do something in Syria.
Laos is a deeply Buddhist country, and my visit included a traditional Tak Bat ceremony, in which you get up at sunrise and make offerings to Buddhist monks.
We are proud of the role our military plays in Japan: defending our allies, ensuring regional peace and stability, and responding to humanitarian catastrophes.
Mandela was a guy who didn't come in and just eviscerate the existing institutions. He sought to co-opt them. He brought white South Africans into his government.
The Benghazi attack was one of the more confusing, chaotic days that we had at work because you had these multiple violent protests taking place in the Middle East.
In both Burma and Laos, we have engaged countries that were once adversaries, and will continue to do so in ways that promote good relations, development, and human rights.
We've supported the development of Cuba's private sector. This is a human rights issue - people should have the right to live with dignity and to control their livelihoods.
When I think of the things that Trump has done, ironically, everything is sort of - we care so much about Cuba and the Iran deal. I think pulling out of TPP is just devastating.
The events of my twenties felt historic, but the people involved did not. I wanted a hero - someone who could make sense of what was happening around me and in some way redeem it.
President Obama has made the Asia Pacific region a focus of his foreign policy, and Vietnam - a large, growing economy in the heart of Southeast Asia - is critical to those efforts.
If we're going to play a role in shaping a future that is more secure, more prosperous, and more connected, we need to make sure that young people have the tools they need to succeed.
Baseball is a great example of the cultural ties between the United States and Cuba and a powerful reminder of the shared experience between people that transcends our difficult history.
There are very few things I've ever been a part of that I believe in more than the Iran deal, and everything I said I believe to be true, and I was trying to make a case about the facts.
When I first went to work in the West Wing, the most daunting thing was how small this place was... You walk in: it's three floors, and there's a few offices on each floor, and that's it.
There is no question that our security and prosperity will be increasingly tied to the Asia Pacific. If America doesn't set the rules of the road for trade in this region, other nations will.
I profoundly do not believe that the United States could make things better in Syria by being there. And we have an evidentiary record of what happens when we're there - nearly a decade in Iraq.
Active citizenship doesn't just mean running for office or going into politics; it means starting organisations that promote change or solve a problem, pursuing social good with economic success.
What people admire about Prime Minister Modi is that he is an ambitious leader who is trying to elevate India economically, and enlisting all Indians in that project will make it more successful.
In China, you just don't have the space for civil society and independent discourse and free media that you do in India. That's why India's success is so important as the world's largest democracy.