Here's a very good rule of thumb in politics: losing begets losing.

Every great political campaign rewrites the rules; devising a new way to win is what gives campaigns a comparative advantage against their foes.

Conservatives must avoid the siren song of schism, or all is lost.

Comedians and impressionists used to be two different showbiz animals entirely, but now there's no such thing as a comedian who doesn't do impressions.

Pop culture is a reflection of social change, not a cause of social change.

There's no light at the end of the tunnel in the Republican message, no promise of better things to come. There's only the present stagnation, followed by a slow decline.

I was wholeheartedly attracted to the conservative atmosphere that permeated the city of Washington.

I look at 'The New York Review of Books.' It's what it has been for 35 or 40 years, which is a highly sophisticated vehicle for anti-American self-hatred.

While negativity is politically useful, it is also demoralizing unless it is accompanied - and to some extent overshadowed - by elevated and inspiring ideas about the American future.

Your race and gender don't change, but you can choose to change your political affiliation at will.

The problem is that borrowing money to pay back more borrowed money that will oblige you in the future to borrow even more money doesn't sound kosher. Because it isn't.

I never violate my oaths or my codes... Only international laws.

I'm a really eclectic reader.

Rick Perry is qualified to be President in the same way that Olive Garden is qualified to be Italy.

I think they are looking for publicity and they are looking for a name for themselves.

Our lives are shaped not as much by our experiences as by our expectations.

We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it.

It is the same in love as in war; a fortress that parleys is half taken.

If I lost control of the business I'd lose myself - or at least the ability to be myself. Owning myself is a way to be myself.

People received, affirmed and experienced grace in many different forms.

The rewards of art are not always commensurate with its quality. It affords a precarious living.