Romney is a good, intelligent, extraordinarily generous man who put on a great fight. But he didn't understand the country or the people he sought to lead, and that is why he lost.

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 don't know when and I don't know how, but you'll get through this. And you'll kick life in the balls just as hard as it's kicked you.

Earlier this year, I'd told a mother at school I'd been married fifteen year. She asked, "What's the secret to a long marriage?" I thought for a second, then answered, "Staying married.

Our highest deeds come from helping the lowest people.

Opera in English is in the main just about as sensible as baseball in Italian.

If we put a product into Sears, we don't want to have to pull it out in a year, or two years, or three years. We don't want to do that only to have it yanked away.

When we become leaders, we sometimes think we are now supposed to have the answers. Yes, we may have some answers, but we will be more effective when we engage others and get their opinions.

I can understand Communism, but not Socialism.

Truly disappointment is the guardian deity of human life; she sits at the threshold of unborn time, and marshals the events as they come forth.

Most exciting for me was to make the Pro Bowl in 14 of 15 years.

Perhaps we all give the best of our hearts uncritically--to those who hardly think about us in return.