I feel a sense of obligation to our troops and their families because of the decisions that I made. So I'm involved with veterans.
Reinvention means you're kind of re-creating somebody. Well, I'm the same person, in terms of values. My priorities - my faith, my family, my friends, the values of personal responsibility and universality of freedom, and "to whom much is given, much is required" - haven't changed [since presidency].
"Statesman" presumes I'm out there giving opinions all the time about things, and no, I'm not interested in opining on a lot of subjects.
"Statesman" gives the impression that every time a major issue comes up, I'll be popping off. And that's not what's going to happen.
I think by not participating in the current political debate, hopefully I'm sending a signal that will help set a tone.
I think that not criticizing my successor is a statement unto itself, in terms of trying to create an environment where people are able to have a meaningful discussion or debate without trash talk.
The problem is, there was plenty of trash talk during my presidency. A lot.
A lot of the reason why the debate is acrimonious is because of the 24/7 news cycles, blogs, and people being able to just throw something out there in order to get attention. And I'm not going be out there doing the same thing, trying to trash my successor or call attention to myself. I hope that's a positive contribution to the dialogue.
In spite of the fact that at times I would challenge parents authority. They provided unconditional love.
[I was raised in] West Texas where people can dream big dreams and achieve them. But where people also have a great sense of community. They cared about their neighbors. And those values, I think, have stood me well.
Running for governor of Texas against a very popular governor [incumbent Ann Richards] was deemed to be risky. Everybody thought I would lose. As I put in my book, my mother said, "You're going to lose!"
I could have easily not run for president, and people would have come up and said, "Oh, man, you would have been a great president." Or even a lousy president. But I never would have known had I not chosen to run. Part of life is seizing the moment.
A number of people walk up to me and say, "You're much taller than I thought."
I didn't try to be something I wasn't.
What mattered to me was that I didn't compromise my soul in order to try to achieve a kind of popularity. The only thing you can do is just live your life.
I was popular at some times and not so popular at other times. But what mattered was trying to solve problems and deal with circumstances. Some of which I was able to anticipate. Some of which caught us totally by surprise.
In terms of what people think about me, the truth of the matter is, I guess I care to a certain extent, but not enough to try to go out in the public and plead for some kind of new understanding of me.
I served. And now it's time for the new man to serve. I have zero desire to be in the limelight.
Sometimes armchair quarterbacks are doing it to enhance their own image. I'm just not comfortable with that idea.
It's kind of the Washington, D.C., chattering class. They kind of talk amongst themselves.
In terms of trying to re-create an image, I think that's a waste of time. I have no interest in doing that. The decisions I made are done.
The decisions I made are done. And history will judge whether or not they were correct. There's no such thing as accurate short-term history.
I'm comfortable that I made the best decisions I possibly could.
I regret that we weren't able to reform Social Security. The fact that we weren't able to when we had majorities in the House and the Senate I think reflected poorly on our political party.
People expect those in authority to take on big problems and to solve them. We had an opportunity to reform Social Security in a way that would have protected people's benefits and created a solvent system. Younger workers would be confident that the money they were putting into the system would be available to them when they retired. It was a missed opportunity. I regret that.
