The air of compromise is rarely appreciated fully by men of principle. C. Vann Woodward

People who sneer at a half a loaf of bread have never been hungry." George Reedy

With Johnson, you never quite knew if he was out to lift your heart or your wallet. Roy Wilkins

He is not the leader of great causes, but the broker of little ones.

The breath of life of the Senate is, of course, continuity,

their anxiety, justified or not, was genuine,

(LBJ) had what a journalist calls “a genius for analogy”— made the point unforgettably, in dialect, in the rhythmic cadences of a great storyteller. Master of the senate

Sam Rayburn on LBJ's recuperation from his heart attack: "It would kill him if he relaxed.

He took the trolley instead of the bus because it was smoother and he could read on it.

That speech (Daniel Webster's) “raised the idea of Union above contract or expediency and enshrined it in the American heart.

its size, the House was an environment in which, as one observer put it, members “could be dealt with only in bodies and droves.

What this country needs is more unemployed politicians.

The financial implode is bound to be reflected in the movies that are being made, there's no question.

I learned that telling the truth was a big part of loving yourself.

I'm not a marketing person. I don't ask myself questions. I go by instinct.

It's time for the government to scale back, not for people of faith to scale back!

If we can find ways to love life and be joyful without being wasteful or destructive--that's what's important.

Some authors have a very hard time understanding that in order to be faithful to the spirit of the book, it's almost always impossible to remain faithful to the text. You have to make changes.

I always get inspiration from whatever characters say about my character.

Over the years, a lot of rappers - Lil' Wayne, Ice Cube - have used my name in their songs. I'm a real touchstone of history.

I still believe nonfiction is the most important literature to come out of the second half of the 20th century.