Warren Christopher

“We've had it very clear to the Bosnians that our obligation to equip and train their forces is completely conditional on the foreign forces being gone.”

“I think there is a good deal of promise in those discussions as well. I think there is a range of matters that might be discussed between NATO and Russia that can provide a mechanism for talking through these issues, a way to give reassurance on these issues.”

“One always wonders about roads not taken.”

“We see considerable strain in Russia, and that's obviously a matter of concern to us. It's in the very strong self-interest of Russia to continue on the reform path.”

“It's very important to always put things in their historical contexts. It teaches important lessons about the country in question.”

“I was born in a very small town in North Dakota, a town of only about 350 people. I lived there until I was 13. It was a marvelous advantage to grow up in a small town where you knew everybody.”

“I don't want to talk about intelligence matters. I will say, however, that intelligence-community estimates should not become public in the way of this city and in the way of Congress.”

“It's very important not to lose your temper in a courtroom, or in anything else you're doing.”

“I'm very much in favor of focused responsibility, and so in the main areas that I'm worried about, I try to have a single person who is basically the key person in that area.”

“It will be undertaken, of course, in the June or July summit, and then to bring NATO closer to Russia or vice versa is a way to move toward integration - toward the integration of Europe.”

“I'm very skeptical about the good intentions of Milosevic.”

“Hamas, the opponents of Arafat, the opponents of peace, urged a boycott of the election, and yet there was an 85 percent turnout where Hamas is supposed to be strong. Isn't that really quite incredible?”

“I've got many close friends, but there's an awful lot about friendship that is not demonstrative in my case.”

“My clerkship with Justice Douglas was tremendously important. He told me, Christopher, get out into the stream of history and see what happens. I've tried to follow that advice.”

“I had all of one nanosecond to savor the news before we had to move on to other problems.”

“We've had some fairly intensive discussions leading up to these meetings between NATO and Russia, preparing for them, and it's going to be a very important six months for NATO.”

“The NATO forces will, to the extent that they have capacity, assist the war crimes tribunal.”

“My father was a small-town banker. He became very ill when I was 10 years old, and we went to California three years later in an attempt to recover his health, which never happened.”

“The stakes are very high for us in Haiti. We have many important interests there. Perhaps the most important to me is our interest in the promotion of democracy in this hemisphere.”

“It was helpful to have the American troops there in great strength. They knew there'd be consequences if they didn't move back. Now, there has been some removal of the foreign forces.”