When a reporter is held hostage, their whole society is held hostage, and that recognition is the most encouraging sign we can hold onto right now.

I think there is a critical mass of the Iraqi society recognizing that the lawlessness that's taken hold in Iraq is bad for anyone who cares about Iraqi society and a new democratic government emerging there. I think they recognize they're being held hostage.

Every single minute I think about this story, my mind turns to her family and the extraordinary risks she took to do her job over there.

We have become a society of haves and have-nots. That was a problem before the hurricane, and it's still a continuous problem.

I have steadily endeavored to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot resist forming one on every subject), as soon as the facts are shown to be opposed to it.

Without speculation there is no good and original observation.