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The energy of the Kennedy years was completely compelling... I had a sense of a generous society eager to change the world. Idealism was very contagious. So that's why I went to America. I didn't intend to stay.

I think it has sullied his presidency. As brilliant a politician as Bill Clinton is, as magnetic a personality as he can be, there is one little screw loose somewhere.

Clinton's fakery was so deft and deeply ingrained that it was impossible to tell where it ended and the real Bill Clinton began. This constituted a kind of political genius.

Former President Bill Clinton, who is widely regarded as a political mastermind, may have sounded like a traditional liberal at the beginning of his term in office. But what ultimately defined his presidency was his amazing pliability on matters of principle.

Bill Clinton told me that when he was 14, he shook John Kennedy's hand, and that inspired him to be president.

Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will.

The egoist is fooled by no ideals: he discards them or uses them, as may suit his own interest.

The acceptance of certain realities doesn't preclude idealism. It can lead to certain breakthroughs.

In the time it takes to heat a TV dinner, Clinton had convinced me that he was the smartest person in the room and that I was the center of his attention. In the next 25 years, I would see countless others fall just as quickly to the Clinton Touch.

Bill Clinton was relentless, eloquent and truly charming.