When dictators feel their support slipping among adults, it is not unusual for them to alter school textbooks in the hope of enlisting impressionable youths in their cause.

Syria is important because it lies at the heart of a region critical to U.S. security, a region that is home to friends and partners and one of our closest allies. It is important because the Syrian regime possesses stores of chemical weapons that they have recently used on a large scale and that we cannot allow to fall into terrorists' hands.

My style in diplomacy is my style as a human being - I'm very direct and very honest.

U.N. Security Council resolutions are only as effective as their enforcement.

I am a person who cares deeply about what is happening in the country, and for me, in most ways since getting out of the service, at least, politics has been the way in which I see myself best serving and trying to make things better.

I think of myself, an Iranian/American artist, and wonder what would I want if I'm ever imprisoned by the Iranian government for the work that I make? I answer: I would hope that the United States government comes to my rescue.

Leadership is service to others.

I think politics today is all about false choices: You can have a robust energy economy and a challenged environment, or a great environment and no economy. That's a false choice. You can do both.