Think about the past to learn, but move forward.

I have no agenda. I'll play anywhere. All I need is a reason to believe that it's a good place for me and that I'm wanted, and I'm coming.

I got traded in the middle of an injury - my ankle injury - so in '09, I came back and just kind of flukishly had some success. I was far, far from healthy. I came back in 2010 still nursing that ankle injury. Yeah, it was a rough, rough go. My first few years in Chicago were not much fun.

When you get to the big leagues, the talent pool is on such a level playing field, you have to find a way to separate yourself from incredibly talented guys. Especially when you go through the injuries that I've had, you come back, and you might not physically be able to do some of the things you used to do.

Where I would fault President Bush the most was that, in the wake of 9/11, he motivated our military, but he didn't call the nation into a state of war. And he didn't explain that this would take though a communal effort against common foe.

One big, glaring difference I can think of between Iraq and Vietnam is the news coverage. During the Vietnam War era, you had TV coverage of the war saturating the airwaves every night, and that coverage wasn't put through a military filter at all.

If, by one determined purpose, the hearts of all the graduates, the officials, and the men of China were united, our country would rest upon a great rock, and we could defy the world to overthrow us. To attain this object, it is necessary first that every man should fulfill his duty to his parents and elders. The country would then be at peace.

I share Alfred Nobel's conviction that war is the greatest of all human disasters. Infectious disease runs a good second.