Anecdotes came with his DNA.

Staffers tend to mimic their bosses, to take their key from them.

He was making the inevitable pivot from critic to manager.

He was experienced enough to spot the downside of doing the right thing.

Historically, the coupling of president and Speaker has been a tricky one that encourages a choreography both quick-footed and wary

The Russian people were just like us. They were victims of their own government. Ronald Reagan

Shared history was the coin of the realm.

The author deduces the best way James Baker serve Reagan as Chief of Staff was to continually remind him why he wanted to be president.

In politics there is a large difference between loosing and being defeated.

He'd made a name for himself out there in the world beyond not just in spite of the distinctly unfashionable persona he presented, but, perhaps, BECAUSE of it.

The author, at the time a Carter speechwriter in the 1980 campaign, showed visible distress at his boss's performance and was warned by a friend in the traveling press, lest he become the story.

A child may not know how to feed itself, or what to eat, yet it knows hunger.

Housing projects can seem like labyrinths to outsiders, as complicated and intimidating as a Moroccan bazaar. But we knew our way around.

The more stitches, the less riches.

Your roots, your family, your friends all become so much more important to you as you get older, especially if you are a wandering minstrel like me.

That youthful fervor, which is sometimes called enthusiasm, but which is a heat of imagination subsequently discovered to be inconsistent with the experience of actual life.

If the American taxpayer knew how much they paid per person to put Neil Armstrong on the moon they would never have paid it. It was hidden from them deliberately because the costs were astronomical.

Sometimes you're fooled quickly. You want to be fooled. If you can't trust your first impression you're going to have a harder time than you should.

Life scars us with its random motion, he thought. Only death is perfect.

See, a good habit makes a child a man, Whereas a bad one makes a man a beast.

Technical perfection is insufficient. It is an orphan without the true soul of the dancer.