Celebrity distorts democracy by giving the rich, beautiful, and famous more authority than they deserve.

The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.

[On journalists:] We are a noisy, imperfect lot, struggling to scribble what has been called the first draft of history.

Journalism, spooked by rumors of its own obsolescence, has stopped believing in itself. Groans of doom alternate with panicked happy talk.

The sounds of silence are a dim recollection now, like mystery, privacy and paying attention to one thing — or one person — at a time.

Wooing the press is an exercise roughly akin to picnicking with a tiger. You might enjoy the meal, but the tiger always eats last.

When I need to work up my nerve to write a tough column, I try to think of myself as Emma Peel in a black leather catsuit.

If you're famous enough, the rules don't apply.

A friendship between reporter and source lasts only until it is profitable for one to betray the other.

Celebrity is the religion of our time.

Don't write anything down, but save everything that anyone else writes down.

I wear the word victim like a badge of honor — my own purple heart. I see what others do more than I see what I'm capable of.

The mind cannot foresee its own advance.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

I have always loved too much, or not enough.

Anyone may have diamonds: an heirloom is an ornament of quite a different kind.

There are hours when the Church must say NO to those who should ask communion with her, in the doing of her work, upon the basis of compromise.

Nobody knows the trouble you've seen - and nobody wants to.

Songs really tend to connect.

Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only stupid people or fools would think it was bad.

Happy thou art not; for what thou hast not, still thou strivest to get; and what thou hast, forgettest.