Every presidency can be seen as a series of words. Which is why we decided to read through hundreds of thousands of the words of Barack Obama—who was a writer, in practice and disposition, long before he was the 44th president of the United States. What does he think of his job? Yes we can, Obama said when he ran. But not overnight, he was quick to add after he won. Change is hard. Just look at these 101 things he’s said since 2006, from his glossy sense of what his presence in the Oval Office could mean to what turned out to be a much more constrained, less soaring reality. Here is the arc of Obama.

1. “My attitude about something like the presidency is that you don’t want to just be the president. You want to change the country. You want to make a unique contribution. You want to be a great president.” (Men’s Vogue, September 2006)

2. “This country is ready for a transformative politics of the sort that John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Franklin Roosevelt represented.” (Time, October 15, 2006)

3. “I don’t know exactly what makes somebody ready to be president. It’s not clear that JFK was ‘ready’ to be president, it’s not clear that Harry Truman, when he was elevated, was ‘ready,’ and yet, somehow, some people respond and some people don’t. My instinct is that people who are ready are folks who go into it understanding the gravity of their work, and are able to combine vision and judgment.” (New Yorker, November 6, 2006)

4. “Well, there are a lot of things I think I can accomplish, but two things I know. The first is, when I raise my hand and take that oath of office, there are millions of kids around this country who don’t believe that it would ever be possible for them to be president of the United States. And for them, the world would change on that day. And the second thing is, I think the world would look at us differently the day I got elected, because it would be a reaffirmation of what America is, about the constant perfecting of who we are. I think I can help repair the damage that’s been done.” (Game Change, December 13, 2006)

5. “Too many times, after the election is over and the confetti is swept away, all those promises fade from memory, and the lobbyists and special interests move in, and people turn away, disappointed as before, left to struggle on their own.” (speech announcing his presidential campaign, February 10, 2007)

6. “I’m running for president because the time for the can’t-do, won’t-do, won’t-even-try style of politics is over. It’s time to turn the page.” (speech in San Diego, May 2, 2007)

7. “I think that I have the capacity to get people to recognize themselves in each other.” (This Week, May 13, 2007)

8. “I actually believe my own rhetoric.” (Newsweek, May 2008)

9. “I was never the likeliest candidate for this office.” (election victory speech, November 4, 2008)

10. “I do have confidence that we’re gonna be able to get it right. But it’s not gonna be overnight.” (Today, February 2, 2009)

11. “I always felt that a president is accountable for making the best decisions, but that there are going to be a lot of unexpected twists and turns along the way. And as I said recently, this is still a human enterprise and these are big, tough, complicated problems. Somebody noted to me that by the time something reaches my desk, that means it’s really hard. Because if it were easy, somebody else would have made the decision and somebody else would have solved it.” (New York Times, March 7, 2009)

12. “I do think in Washington it’s a little bit like American Idol, except everybody is Simon Cowell. Everybody’s got an opinion.” (The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, March 19, 2009)

13. “And, you know, obviously, at the inauguration I think that there was justifiable pride on the part of the country that we had taken a step to move us beyond some of the searing legacies of racial discrimination in this country. But that lasted about a day.” (White House news conference, March 24, 2009)

14. “Well, I had a habit of praying every night, before I go to bed. I pray all the time now. Because I’ve got a lot of stuff on my plate and I need guidance all the time.” (Nightline, July 24, 2009)

15. “Look, you know, when you’re in this job, I think, uh—every president who’s had it is constantly humbled by the degree to which there are a lot of issues out there, and the notion that one person alone can solve all these problems—I think you’re cured of that illusion very quickly.” (Nightline, July 24, 2009)

16. “After I received the news, Malia walked in and said, ‘Daddy, you won the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is Bo’s birthday!’ And then Sasha added, ‘Plus, we have a three-day weekend coming up.’ So it’s good to have kids to keep things in perspective.” (remarks on winning the Nobel Peace Prize, October 9, 2009)

17. “I don’t think anything prepares you for the presidency.” (U.S. News & World Report, October 27, 2009)

18. “Exercise every day. Seeing my family. Keeping things in perspective. Reading history. Reminding yourself that this is a long-term proposition and you’re not going to get everything exactly right, but hopefully, if you’re moving things in the right trajectory, that things usually work out.” (U.S. News & World Report, October 27, 2009)

19. “The worst thing about being president is all the noise, all the political games—you know, it can be like a hall of mirrors, where just a few people are talking to each other and never breaking out of it. And Michelle is very good at making me focus not on the immediate orbit that we’re in but what’s going on outside of it.” (interview with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, December 11, 2009)

20. “Let’s be clear here. Seven presidents have tried to reform a health care system that everyone acknowledges is broken. Seven presidents have failed up until this point.” (60 Minutes, December 13, 2009)

21. “You know, we live in history. And it’s complicated. And things aren’t always, you know, completely clean.” (60 Minutes, December 13, 2009)

22. “You know, this is a town where once a screw-up happens, people can’t just say, ‘OK, that was a screw-up and let’s fix it.’ There has to be, you know, two weeks’ worth of cable chatter about it.” (60 Minutes, December 13, 2009)

23. “There’s got to be a sense sometimes that we’re willing to rise above our particular interests, our particular ideas, in order to get things done. Right now, that culture has, I think, broken down over the last several years, and one of my jobs over the next three years is to try to see if we can revive that.” (ABC News, December 16, 2009)

24. “The one thing I’m clear about is that I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president. And I—and I believe that.” (ABC News, January 26, 2010)

25. “When your poll numbers drop, you’re an idiot. When your poll numbers are high, you’re a genius. If my poll numbers are low, then I’m cool and cerebral and cold and detached. If my poll numbers are high, well, ‘He’s calm and reasoned.’” (ABC News, January 26, 2010)

26. “My point is the easiest thing to do in politics is to point fingers, to figure out who to blame for something, or to make people afraid of things. That’s the easiest way to get attention. That’s what reporters will report on. You call somebody a name, you say, ‘Look what a terrible thing they’ve done, and they’re going to do more terrible things to you if you don’t watch out.’” (speech in New Hampshire, February 2, 2010)

27. “Let’s acknowledge that democracy has always been messy. Let’s not be overly nostalgic.” (National Prayer Breakfast, February 4, 2010)

28. “We—I’ve got a whole bunch of portraits of presidents around here, starting with Teddy Roosevelt, who tried to do [health care reform] and didn’t get it done. The reason that it needs to be done is not its effect on the presidency. It has to do with how it’s going to affect ordinary people who right now are desperately in need of help.” (Special Report with Bret Baier, March 17, 2010)

29. “People don’t progress in a straight line. Countries don’t progress in a straight line.” (David Remnick’s The Bridge, April 6, 2010)

30. “As I’ve found out after a year in the White House, changing this type of slash-and-burn politics isn’t easy.” (University of Michigan graduation speech, May 1, 2010)

31. “I also have the shortest commute of anybody I know. And that makes a huge difference because it means no matter how long I’m working any given day I can always go upstairs to see my wife and kids. And that’s something I probably appreciate more than anything else about being here in the White House.” (C-SPAN, August 12, 2010)

32. “You know, the Lincoln Bedroom, I don’t go into much, except when there are visitors. Every once in a while, I’ll sneak in, just to reread the Gettysburg Address.” (C-SPAN, August 12, 2010)

33. “I will say that the South Lawn is extraordinary. And we built this play set out here that Malia and Sasha used to use a lot. They’re now getting old enough where sometimes they don’t use it as much as we expect. But I’ve got nieces and nephews and kids of staff come in. And there are times when I’m working here and I’ll look out the window and suddenly somebody’s on a swing or laughing as they go down a slide, and it reminds you of why we’re doing what we’re doing.” (C-SPAN, August 12, 2010)

34. “You know, look, our political life is like our individual lives. There are ups and downs. There are peaks and valleys.” (New York Times Magazine, October 12, 2010)

35. “I make no apologies for having set high expectations for myself and for the country, because I think we can meet those expectations. Now, the one thing that I will say—which I anticipated and can be tough—is the fact that in a big, messy democracy like this, everything takes time. And we’re not a culture that’s built on patience.” (New York Times Magazine, October 12, 2010)

36. “History never precisely repeats itself. But there is a pattern in American presidencies—at least modern presidencies. You come in with excitement and fanfare. The other party initially, having been beaten, says it wants to cooperate with you. You start implementing your program as you promised during the campaign. The other party pushes back very hard. It causes a lot of consternation and drama in Washington. People who are already cynical and skeptical about Washington generally look at it and say, ‘This is the same old mess as we’ve seen before.’ The president’s poll numbers drop. And you have to then sort of wrestle back the confidence of the people as the programs that you’ve put in place start bearing fruit.” (New York Times Magazine, October 12, 2010)

37. “I am president, I am not king. I can’t do these things just by myself.” (Univision, October 25, 2010)

38. “My attitude is, if we’re makin’ progress, step by step, inch by inch, day by day, that we are being true to the spirit of that campaign.” (The Daily Show, October 27, 2010)

39. “So, the most important things for me over the last two years, in terms of stress reduction, is the fact that if I’m here in Washington, I’m having dinner at 6:30, just about every night. And sitting around that table, listening to [my kids], and trying to answer their questions, that keeps my bearings.” (ABC News, November 26, 2010)

40. “As I travel across the country folks often ask me what is it that I pray for. And like most of you, my prayers sometimes are general: ‘Lord, give me the strength to meet the challenges of my office.’ Sometimes they’re specific: ‘Lord, give me patience as I watch Malia go to her first dance—where there will be boys.’ ‘Lord, have that skirt get longer as she travels to that dance.’” (National Prayer Breakfast, February 3, 2011)

41. “I think that when you’re president of the United States, it comes with the territory that folks are going to criticize you. That’s what I signed up for.” (NPR, July 22, 2011)

42. “No wonder I have got more gray hair now.” (CNN, August 16, 2011)

43. “As long as I’m president, I’m gonna be held responsible, in some fashion, to fix the problem.” (60 Minutes, December 11, 2011)

44. “Sometimes when I’m talking to my team, I describe us as, you know—I’m the captain and they’re the crew on a ship, going through really bad storms. And no matter how well we’re steering the ship, if the boat’s rocking back and forth and people are getting sick and, you know, they’re being buffeted by the winds and the rain and, you know, at a certain point, if you’re asking, ‘Are you enjoying the ride right now?’ Folks are gonna say, ‘No.’ And [if you] say, ‘Do you think the captain’s doing a good job?’ People are gonna say, ‘You know what? A good captain would have had us in some smooth waters and sunny skies, at this point.’ And I don’t control the weather. What I can control are the policies we’re putting in place to make a difference in people’s lives.” (60 Minutes, December 11, 2011)

45. “You know, there was actually a good article written a while back, taking a look at the old press clips from every Democratic president, dating back to Franklin Roosevelt, including Roosevelt. And, you know, nobody was happy with them. Nobody was happy with them. You know? Bill Clinton, who’s beloved by the Democratic Party, at this point—and I consider to be an extraordinarily successful president—you look at his old press clippings, he was getting beat up with some of the same stuff I was getting beat up with.” (60 Minutes, December 11, 2011)

46. “I think that when I came into office in 2008, it was my firm belief that at such an important moment in our history, there was no reason why Democrats and Republicans couldn’t put some of the old ideological baggage aside and focus on common sense, what works, practical solutions to the tough problems we were facing. And I think the Republicans made a different calculation, which was, ‘You know what? We really screwed up the economy. Obama seems popular. Our best bet is to stand on the sidelines, because we think the economy’s gonna get worse, and at some point, just blame him.’” (60 Minutes, December 11, 2011)

47. “I didn’t overpromise. And I didn’t underestimate how tough this was gonna be. I always believed that this was a long-term project; this wasn’t a short-term project.” (60 Minutes, December 11, 2011)

48. “The one thing I’ve prided myself on before I was president—and it turns out that continues to be true as president—I’m a persistent son of a gun. I just stay at it. And I’m just gonna keep on staying at it as long as I’m in this office.” (60 Minutes, December 11, 2011)

49. “I’ve got five more years of stuff to do.” (60 Minutes, December 11, 2011)

50. “There’s nothing more humbling, actually, than being president. It’s a strange thing. Suddenly, you’ve got all the pomp and the circumstance and you’ve got the helicopters and you’ve got the Air Force One and—and the plane is really nice. It really is. I mean, Bill may not miss being president, but he misses that plane. Let’s face it, he does. It’s a great plane. And I’ll miss it, too.” (remarks at a private fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, April 29, 2012)

51. “But not yet.” (remarks at a private fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, April 29, 2012)

52. “The gridlock you see in Washington does not exist out in neighborhoods and cities and towns across the country. If I go to Malia’s or Sasha’s soccer game and I’m standing there with a bunch of parents, I don’t know whether or not they’re Democrats or Republicans, and most of them have the same concerns and the same values.” (Late Show with David Letterman, September 19, 2012)

53. “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” (Vanity Fair, October 2012)

54. “You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.” (Vanity Fair, October 2012)

55. “I played a lot of sports when I was a kid, and still do. If you have a bad game, you just move on. You look forward to the next one. And it makes you that much more determined.” (ABC News, October 10, 2012)

56. “So we’ve made real progress these past four years. But … we know our work’s not done yet. … And that’s why I’m running for a second term as president. Because we’ve got more work to do.” (campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, November 1, 2012)

57. “The biggest challenge we’ve always had is that unlike FDR—who came into office when the economy had already bottomed out, so people understood that everything done subsequent to his election was making things better—I came in just as we were sliding.” (Rolling Stone, November 8, 2012)

58. “I think that being in this office has made me even more appreciative of my family in ways that I didn’t think I could be. I already loved them so much, but when you’re under all these pressures, to come home every single night—at least when I’m in town—and have Michelle and the girls there, and draw joy from them … they are my balance and they keep me grounded, and that’s truer now than it’s ever been.” (O, The Oprah Magazine, November 2012)

59. “Do I wish that things were more orderly in Washington, and rational, and people listened to the best arguments and compromised and operated in a more thoughtful and organized fashion? Absolutely. But when you look at history, that’s been the exception rather than the norm.” (Meet the Press, December 30, 2012)

60. “There are all sorts of lessons to be learned both from past presidents and my own first term. I’ve said this before, but one of the things that happened in the first term was that we had so many fires going on at the same time that we were focusing on policy and getting it right, which means that we were spending less time communicating with the American people about why we were doing what we were doing and how it tied together with our overarching desire of strengthening our middle class and making the economy work.” (New Republic, January 27, 2013)

61. “And a big chunk of my day is occupied by news of war, terrorism, ethnic clashes, violence done to innocents.” (New Republic, January 27, 2013)

62. “I am more mindful probably than most of not only our incredible strengths and capabilities, but also our limitations.” (New Republic, January 27, 2013)

63. “I think, you know, one of the things that humbles you as president—I’m sure Hillary feels the same way as secretary of state—is that you realize that all you can do every single day is to figure out a direction, make sure that you are working as hard as you can to put people in places where they can succeed, ask the right questions, shape the right strategy. But it’s going to be a team that both succeeds and fails. And it’s a process of constant improvement, because the world is big and it is chaotic. You know, I remember Bob Gates—you know, first thing he said to me, I think maybe first week or two that I was there and we were meeting in the Oval Office. And he, obviously, has been through seven presidents or something. And he says, ‘Mr. President, one thing I can guarantee you is that at this moment, somewhere, somehow, somebody in the federal government is screwing up.’” (60 Minutes, January 27, 2013)

64. “You know, there are transitions and transformations taking place all around the world. We are not going to be able to control every aspect of every transition and transformation. Sometimes they’re going to go sideways. Sometimes, you know, there’ll be unintended consequences.” (60 Minutes, January 27, 2013)

65. “But I do worry sometimes that as soon as we leave the prayer breakfast, everything we’ve been talking about the whole time at the prayer breakfast seems to be forgotten—on the same day of the prayer breakfast. I mean, you’d like to think that the shelf life wasn’t so short. But I go back to the Oval Office and I start watching the cable news networks and it’s like we didn’t pray.” (National Prayer Breakfast, February 7, 2013)

66. “As president, sometimes I have to search for the words to console the inconsolable. Sometimes I search Scripture to determine how best to balance life as a president and as a husband and as a father. I often search for Scripture to figure out how I can be a better man as well as a better president.” (National Prayer Breakfast, February 7, 2013)

67. “What people really typically want is a clean solution, a silver bullet, here’s what we’re going to do and we just move forward—well, that’s not, unfortunately, how the world works.” (Charlie Rose, June 17, 2013)

68. “If we get in the habit where a few folks, an extremist wing of one party, whether it’s Democrat or Republican, are allowed to extort concessions based on a threat of undermining the full faith and credit of the United States, then any president who comes after me, not just me, will find themselves unable to govern effectively.” (CNBC, October 2, 2013)

69. “It is not unusual for Democrats and Republicans to disagree. That’s the way the founders designed our government. Democracy’s messy. But when you have a situation in which a faction is willing potentially to default on U.S. government obligations, then we are in trouble.” (CNBC, October 2, 2013)

70. “Am I exasperated? Absolutely I’m exasperated.” (CNBC, October 2, 2013)

71. “How business is done in this town has to change." (remarks at the White House, October 17, 2013)

72. “Disagreement cannot mean dysfunction. It can’t degenerate into hatred.” (remarks at the White House, October 17, 2013)

73. “You know, when Social Security was first passed, people said, ‘This is socialism, this is terrible.’ When Medicare passed, people were fighting it, saying, ‘You’re going to lose, you know, your health care.’ Some of the same arguments that are made about the Affordable Care Act you heard about Social Security, you heard about Medicare. But once you get over that hump and the thing starts rolling, and people become accustomed to it and confident about it, it ends up helping a lot of people and, you know, that’s just the nature of social change in this country.” (Steve Harvey, December 20, 2013)

74. “There have been times where I’ve been constrained by the fact that I had two young daughters who I wanted to spend time with—and that I wasn’t in a position to work the social scene in Washington.” (New Yorker, January 27, 2014)

75. “The only time I get frustrated is when folks act like it’s not complicated and there aren’t some real tough decisions, and are sanctimonious, as if somehow these aren’t complicated questions.” (New Yorker, January 27, 2014)

76. “I have strengths and I have weaknesses, like every president, like every person. I do think one of my strengths is temperament. I am comfortable with complexity, and I think I’m pretty good at keeping my moral compass while recognizing that I am a product of original sin. And every morning and every night I’m taking measure of my actions against the options and possibilities available to me, understanding that there are going to be mistakes that I make and my team makes and that America makes; understanding that there are going to be limits to the good we can do and the bad that we can prevent, and that there’s going to be tragedy out there and, by occupying this office, I am part of that tragedy occasionally, but that if I am doing my very best and basing my decisions on the core values and ideals that I was brought up with and that I think are pretty consistent with those of most Americans, that at the end of the day, things will be better rather than worse.” (New Yorker, January 27, 2014)

77. “At the end of the day we’re part of a long-running story. We just try to get our paragraph right.” (New Yorker, January 27, 2014)

78. “I try to focus not on the fumbles, but on the next plan.” (Fox News, February 2, 2014)

79. “I don’t get a chance to take walks very often. Secret Service gets a little stressed. But every once in a while, I’m able to sneak off. I’m sort of like the circus bear that kind of breaks the chain, and I start taking off, and everybody starts whispering, ‘The bear is loose!’” (remarks at the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York, May 22, 2014)

80. “The bear is loose.” (leaving the White House for a Starbucks run, June 9, 2014)

81. “The last time I took a walk unencumbered was in Austin, Texas. True story. This is before a debate in the primary. And I walked along the river, and I got about probably a mile, mile and a half, and then some people started spotting me. … Secret Service got nervous.” (remarks in Austin, July 10, 2014)

82. “What I’ve said to my team is, ‘Get me out of Washington.’ Let me talk to people who are doing the right thing and struggling, so that they know they’re being heard by at least somebody in Washington. Let’s remind the country what we should be focused on. So that we can also maybe prod Congress into doing the right thing.” (remarks in Austin, July 10, 2014)

83. “Once I’m done, then I’ll look back and see what the legacy is.” (YouTube interview, January 22, 2015)

84. “I’m not ignoring it. I’m dealing with it every day. That’s what I wake up to each morning. I get a thick book full of death, destruction, strife and chaos. That’s what I take with my morning tea.” (Vox, February 9, 2015)

85. “I don’t get too high, don’t get too low.” (Huffington Post, March 21, 2015)

86. “As long as I stay focused on those north stars, then I tend not to get too rattled.” (Huffington Post, March 21, 2015)

87. “I want to thank everybody here for their prayers, which mean so much to me and Michelle. Particularly at a time when my daughters are starting to grow up and starting to go on college visits, I need prayer. I start tearing up in the middle of the day and I can’t explain it. Why am I so sad? They’re leaving me.” (White House Easter Prayer Breakfast, April 7, 2015)

88. “I got a letter a while back from a gentleman living in Colorado, and clearly an intelligent guy, and he had taken a lot of time to write this letter. And he said, you know, ‘I voted for you twice, but I’m feeling disillusioned.’ … And it went on and on, chronicling all the things that hadn’t gotten done. And most of what he said I responded to, I think, pretty effectively, because he seemed to have forgotten everything that had happened and how he had benefited. But the core, I think, of his concern, the core of his complaint, was that he thought that when I got to Washington I could bring people together and make them work more effectively. And the fact of the matter is, is that Washington is still gridlocked and still seems obsessed with the short term and the next election instead of the next generation. And on that issue, I had to tell him, ‘You’re right.’ I am frustrated, and you have every right to be frustrated, because Congress doesn’t work the way it should. Issues are left untended. Folks are more interested in scoring political points than getting things done—not because any individual member of Congress is a bad person—there are a lot of good, well-meaning, hardworking people out there—but because the incentives that have been built into the system reward short-term, reward a polarized politics, reward being simplistic instead of being true, reward division. And as mightily as I have struggled against that, I told him, ‘You’re right. It still is broken.’ But I reminded him that when I ran in 2008, I, in fact, did not say I would fix it; I said we could fix it. I didn’t say, ‘Yes, I can.’ I said—what? … ‘Yes, we can.’” (remarks in Santa Monica, California, June 18, 2015)

89. “I’ve been through this. I’ve screwed up. I’ve been in the barrel tumbling down Niagara Falls, and I emerged, and I lived. And that’s such a liberating feeling. It’s one of the benefits of age.” (WTF with Marc Maron, June 22, 2015)

90. “You know there’s a place in Hawaii, Hanauma Bay, which is now a natural preserve. But it’s a beautiful coral reef, and my mother, she always says that the reason I’m calm is because when she was pregnant with me she used to go down to this bay and sit and listen to the water.” (BBC, June 30, 2015)

91. “I can say this unequivocally. The VA is better now than when I came into office. Government works better than when I came into office. The economy, by any metric, is better than when I came into office. And so the reason I can sleep at night is, I say to myself, ‘You know what? It’s better.’ Now, am I satisfied with it? No. And should voters be satisfied with it? Absolutely not. Because otherwise, you know, if we get complacent and lazy, then stuff doesn’t happen.” (The Daily Show, July 21, 2015)

92. “What I found during the course of the presidency, and I suppose this is true in life, is that investments and work that you make back here sometimes take a little longer than the 24-hour news cycle to bear fruit.” (BBC, July 24, 2015)

93. “I am in my second term. It has been an extraordinary privilege for me to serve as president of the United States. I cannot imagine a greater honor or a more interesting job. I love my work. But under our Constitution, I cannot run again. I can’t run again. I actually think I’m a pretty good president—I think if I ran, I could win. But I can’t. So there’s a lot that I’d like to do to keep America moving, but the law is the law. And no one person is above the law. Not even the president. And I’ll be honest with you—I’m looking forward to life after being president. I won’t have such a big security detail all the time. It means I can go take a walk. I can spend time with my family.” (speech in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 28, 2015)

94. “I’ve been around this track now for a while.” (NPR, August 10, 2015)

95. “Gotta keep moving.” (NPR, August 10, 2015)

96. “That’s one of the hardest things in politics to convince people of: to make investments today that don’t pay off until many years from now.” (Rolling Stone, September 23, 2015)

97. “I do think that Speaker Boehner sometimes had a tough position because there were members in his caucus who saw compromise of any sort as weakness or betrayal. And when you have divided government, when you have a democracy, compromise is necessary. And I think Speaker Boehner sometimes had difficulty persuading members of his caucus of that.” (White House news conference, September 25, 2015)

98. “But as I said from the start, it’s going to take time.” (news conference in Antalya, Turkey, November 16, 2015)

99. “There’s no doubt that the longer I’m in this job, the more confident I am about the decisions I’m making and more knowledgeable about the responses I can expect. And as a consequence, you end up being looser. There’s not much I have not seen at this point, and I know what to expect, and I can anticipate more than I did before.” (GQ, November 17, 2015)

100. “When I think about how I understand my role as citizen, setting aside being president, and the most important set of understandings that I bring to that position of citizen, the most important stuff I’ve learned I think I’ve learned from novels. It has to do with empathy. It has to do with being comfortable with the notion that the world is complicated and full of grays, but there’s still truth there to be found, and that you have to strive for that and work for that.” (New York Review of Books, November 19, 2015)

101. “One of the things that you find is when you’re in this job, you think about it differently than when you’re just running for the job.” (news conference in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, December 1, 2015)