"No matter where I go - London, Beirut, Jerusalem, Washington, Beijing, or Bangalore - I'm always looking to rediscover that land of ten thousand lakes where politics actually worked to make people's lives better, not pull them apart."

"The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention argues that no two countries that are both part of the same global supply chain will ever fight a war as long as they are each part of that supply chain."

"Optimists are usually wrong. But all the great change in history, positive change, was done by optimists."

"I've been a critic of the antiglobalization movement, and they've been a critic of me, but the one thing I respect about the movement is their authentic energy. These are not people who don't care about the world."

"I've always had a middling kind of a career, not great highs and great lows."

"Instead of asking 'How much damage will the work in question bring about?' why not ask 'How much good? How much joy?'"

"But I'm pretty good with collaborative thinking. I work well with other people."

"In day-to-day commerce, television is not so much interested in the business of communications as in the business of delivering audiences to advertisers. People are the merchandise, not the shows. The shows are merely the bait."