“Remember where you came from.”

Preserve the President’s options. He may need them.

Let’s stick something in the ground and not pretend that it’s perfect.

Don’t speak ill of your predecessors or successors. You didn’t walk in their shoes.

Amidst all the clutter, beyond all the obstacles, aside from all the static, are the goals set. Put your head down, do the best job possible, let the flak pass, and work towards those goals.

If we know anything, it is that weakness is provocative.

Don’t blame the boss. He has enough problems.

The price of being close to the President is delivering bad news. You fail him if you don’t tell him the truth. Others won’t do it.

Those who made the decisions with imperfect knowledge will be judged in hindsight by those with considerably more information at their disposal and time for reflection.

Know that the amount of criticism you receive may correlate somewhat to the amount of publicity you receive.

Be precise. A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error is small.

First rule of politics: you can’t win unless you’re on the ballot. Second rule: If you run, you may lose. And, if you tie, you do not win.

Your performance depends on your people. Select the best, train them and back them. When errors occur, give sharper guidance. If errors persist or if the fit feels wrong, help them move on. The country cannot afford amateur hour in the White House.

There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don’t know.

Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.

Reduce the number of lawyers. They are like beavers – they get in the middle of the stream and dam it up.

Agreement can always be reached by increasing the generality of the conclusion; when this is done, the form is generally preserved but only the illusion of policy is created.

I’ve discovered that most critics themselves are cinematically illiterate. They don’t really know much about movies. They don’t know the history. They don’t know the technology. They don’t know anything. So for them to try to analyze it, they’re lost.

But having a really good understanding of history, literature, psychology, sciences – is very, very important to actually being able to make movies.

History is the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instructor of the present, and monitor to the future.

Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny.

When we hold onto our history, we do it at the expense of our destiny…. At some point you just have to let go of what you thought should have happened and live in what’s happening.

I am not a victim. No matter what I have been through, I’m still here. I have a history of victory.

Civil disobedience has an honourable history, and when the urgency and moral clarity cross a certain threshold, then I think that civil disobedience is quite understandable, and it has a role to play.

History is supposed to teach us how to deal with the present and future, but it doesn’t do that if we look at it merely as a record of events.”