Barack Obama: “That's why we celebrate artists like the ones here tonight.”

A drift towards extremism was "not inevitable

People need to “rediscover what’s the story we tell about how we’re going to live together, and see each other, and recognise each other, and disagree, and yet, still care for each other”.

When we choose, when we make that decision, I do believe – and there is evidence for this – that the world gets incrementally better, and that is a worthy goal and it’s worth fighting for.

It is a decision about how do we face and embrace this finite amount of time we have on the planet.