I think romance is friendship and attraction sort of meeting together and that does influence what I'm writing a lot. I try to establish the attraction obviously but I also think it's important to show the characters having actual conversations about things other than their feelings for each other - and to develop their friendship on the page.

And we want to develop our strategy to partnership and friendship with the United States which is connected with a very rich history but what is very important for our future.

If you're going through friendship issues I would say first of all take a step back. How important is the friendship to you? Sometimes if someone's not being a good friend to you and isn't treating you the way you should be treated then you kind of have to move on sometimes.

The fact is with every friendship you make and every bond of trust you establish you are shaping the image of America projected to the rest of the world. That is so important. So when you study abroad you're actually helping to make America stronger.

I think it's important to have closure in any relationship that ends - from a romantic relationship to a friendship. You should always have a sense of clarity at the end and know why it began and why it ended. You need that in your life to move cleanly into your next phase.

Friendship with ones self is all important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

It is important to our friends to believe that we are unreservedly frank with them and important to friendship that we are not.

To me music has to be about freedom. It's the most important thing in my life.

Most importantly nothing has happened to change my conviction that freedom and the love of liberty remain the essential defining attributes of our national character as a people.

By helping readers understand these mechanics I hope they will appreciate why freedom is for everyone why it is essential for our security and why the free world plays a critically important role in advancing democracy around the globe.