Sometimes people ask me who are the future leaders of Iran... I say I don't know who they are, but I know that they exist by the thousands. They are the artists and engineers; they are poets and businessmen; they are entrepreneurs and they are there — waiting to inherit this future... And it is, by God, our obligation, our duty to the nation, to help them the best way possible to minimize the toll and the cost of change.

As quoted in Peter Godspeed, 'It is my duty', Canada National Post, September 24, 2010.