President Clinton intentionally created a structure that was a little loose. And one that kept him a little in the center. He didn't want one person filtering all the information that went to him. He had always operated with a lot of information coming in and a lot of stuff going out.

As long as the G.O.P., led by its increasingly visible women, continues to insist that the problem is not their policies but women's failure to understand their own lives and interests, the gender gap won't go away.

Women's particular experiences continue to shape not just their points of view but their actions, in the United States and around the world.

Trying to negotiate getting a couple of kids to watch the same TV show requires serious diplomacy.

When I was a youngster, I wrote all this music - it just came out of me - and I think record executives were like, 'Oh, wow, he's a genius, let's give him a million dollars!' But the minute I started producing the records, they'd be like, 'Oh, my God, you're terrible! You're all over the place! We can't market this!'

At a moment when people are losing faith in their ability to participate in politics and make themselves heard, the media can play a critical role in reversing that sense of alienation.

Politics are wack - it's mostly about the characters instead of the issues, like how religion is about religion instead of spirituality.

When I went through my divorce, I decided that I was going to pray this time for someone. Then, God sent me someone. I prayed for the specific qualities I wanted in a man, and I wasn't going to settle for anything less.