"I believe people have a right to know what's going on with their information and how it's collected, how it's stored and who gets it."

"At 'SNL,' I wrote political stuff, but I never felt the show should have an axe to grind. But when I left in '95, I could let my own beliefs out."

"I believe in not attacking a country pre-emptively unless you're sure of what you're doing and you're working with allies."

"I'm sure I've devoted enough thought to Rush Limbaugh for one lifetime."

"We owe an historic debt to American Indians. They have a unique set of concerns that haven't been addressed, and I'd like to stand with them. Also, I'd like to get their views on immigration."

"The Minnesotans I talk to are really concerned about what the future holds for their families. They're trying to pay for health care and send their kids to college, they're worried about declining home values, they're scared for a loved one they have serving in Iraq."

"I get satisfaction when I write something I like, when I'm happy with it."

"When you encounter seemingly good advice that contradicts other seemingly good advice, ignore them both."

"Gary Bauer is a very good - he's a good friend of mine."

"I don't consider myself an artist necessarily, but craftsmen or people in the arts, their spiritualism is sort of when you're writing well or performing well or doing whatever you do well, there's an element of that that's either God-given, a talent that you're not necessarily responsible for."

"When you live in New York, one of two things happen - you either become a New Yorker, or you feel more like the place you came from."

"I'm crushed by the responsibility of writing a satirical book."

"It's hard to have that debate around secret programs authorized by secret legal opinions issued by a secret court. Actually, it's impossible to have that debate."

"National security laws must protect national security. But they must also protect the public trust and preserve the ability of an informed electorate to hold its government to account."

"The government must give proper weight to both keeping America safe from terrorists and protecting Americans' privacy. But when Americans lack the most basic information about our domestic surveillance programs, they have no way of knowing whether we're getting that balance right. This lack of transparency is a big problem."

"Veterans report that service dogs help break their isolation. People will often avert their eyes when they see a wounded veteran. But when the veteran has a dog, the same people will come up and say, 'Hi' to pet the dog and then strike up a conversation."

"Service dogs raise their masters' sense of well-being."

"In my first week as a U.S. senator, I had the privilege of participating in the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Judge Sonia Sotomayor."

"Too many people don't protect their smartphones with a password or PIN. I anticipate that Apple's fingerprint reader will in fact make iPhone 5S owners more likely to secure their smartphones."

"The biases the media has are much bigger than conservative or liberal. They're about getting ratings, about making money, about doing stories that are easy to cover."

"Mistakes are a part of being human. Precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from."

"WHAT DO WE WANT?! PATIENCE! WHEN DO WE WANT IT?! NOW!"

"A cardinal principle of Total Quality escapes too many managers: you cannot continuously improve interdependent systems and processes until you progressively perfect interdependent, interpersonal relationships."

"Interdependency follows independence."