Describing the jury in the OJ Simpson murder trial: These people have served a longer sentence than some people who have committed murder.

After immersing myself in the mysteries of the Electoral College for a novel I wrote in the '90s, I came away believing that the case for scrapping it is less obvious than I originally thought.

The niftiest turn of phrase, the most elegant flight of rhetorical fancy, isn't worth beans next to a clear thought clearly expressed.

Somebody is going to have to do fancy footwork to make sure Elizabeth and John Edwards get their prime-time shot .

More things in politics happen by accident or exhaustion than happen by conspiracy.

Something about her eyes or voice has always suggested the hint of a free spirit, trapped in a Peck and Peck cage, dreaming of making rude noises at public gatherings of Republicans.

In every debate, whatever the format, whatever the questions, there is one and only one way to identify the winner: Who commands the room? Who drives the narrative? Who is in charge?

History doesn't turn on a dime; it turns on a plugged nickel.

F.D.R. had to deal with Southern segregationists - and outright racists - who held power in Congress, so he had to yield to that power in order to get his New Deal legislation passed.

In politics, Bugs Bunny always beats Daffy Duck. Daffy's always going berserk, jumping up and down, yelling. Bugs's got that sly smile, like he always knows what's up, like nothing can ruffle him.

In another life, before taking the veil of journalistic purity, I practiced the black arts of a political operative, including 'debate prep.

An effective life is a selfless one

You must carry on my spirit. It can no longer be carried by a god. It must be taken up by all of you. - Pan

But anyone who knows anything about the music industry knows it's not only about the music.

O yellow eye, let me be sick with your heat, let me be feverish and frowning.

We're at a point in time which is analogous to when single-celled organisms were turning into multi-celled organisms. So we're the amoebas.

In the long term, to defeat this ideology [terrorism] - and they [terrorists] are bound by an ideology - you defeat it with a more hopeful ideology called freedom.

It is not a character fault or weakness or seeking attention. It is somebody who is ill.

A shattered illusion is a sorrowful experience; but a life without illusion is a sorrowful life

When you arrive at your destination, pay absolutely no attention to the thing people call jetlag.

Sure, there are many bad things that can happen. Yet you can be aware of them, and realistic about them, without being obsessed and consumed by them.