I think that if you make a strong statement of principle, even if the folks disagree with you, people will respect you for it.

Novel writing should never be confused with journalism. Unfortunately, in the case of Primary Colors, a fair number of journalists confused.

Cynicism is what passes for insight among the mediocre.

Affirmative action was always racial justice on the cheap.

Diversity has been written into the DNA of American life; any institution that lacks a rainbow array has come to seem diminished, if not diseased.

Dictating to dictators doesn't work; they are congenitally delusional about their own indispensability.

Bush promised a foreign policy of humility and a domestic policy of compassion. He has given us a foreign policy of arrogance and a domestic policy that is cynical, myopic and cruel.

Anonymous sources are a practice of American journalism in the 20th and 21st century, a relatively recent practice. The literary tradition of anonymity goes back to the Bible.

I've been described as a grizzled political veteran.

You can't get all of your news from Jon Stewart, especially since it's a comedy show.

We journalists are never so idiotic as when we analyze things that we shouldn't be analyzing.

The foot feels the foot when it's touched by the ground, like the heart feels the heart when it's no longer bound.

Seek ye not riches, seek but the society of good men.

We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few but we can't have both.

No one sells records anymore. It's all about touring. It's all greatest hits records and box sets. And even those don't sell. People just go online.

The fluoride ion exerts its toxic effect by inhibiting the action of many enzyme systems.

It is always interesting to see people in dead earnest, from whatever cause, and earthquakes make everybody earnest.

Woman is a miracle of divine contradictions.

The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.

The good agent probably is not the reader, he's just the guy who can put together a deal.

Freedom without security portends chaos, perpetual anxiety and fear.