I do a lot of mental work before I ever start writing.

Being a reporter is as much a diagnosis as a job description.

The gender gap looks at this point like it's going to favor the president, particularly among white suburban women. I certainly think it's going to be an issue. But I think the single most important thing in this election will be turnout.

For most of my adult life, I have been an emotional hit-and- run driver--that is, a reporter. I made people like me, trust me, open their hearts and their minds to me, and cry and bleed on to the pages of my neat little notebooks, and then I went back to a safe place and made a story out of it.

Don't ever forget the words on a postcard that my father sent me last year: "If you win the rat race, you're still a rat.

Real friends offer both hard truths and soft landings and realize that it's sometimes more important to be nice than to be honest.

You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.