People tease me about knowing somehow that Obama would put Clinton into the cabinet, and everybody would talk about a team of rivals.

When I look at what a writer owes to the reader, it's critical to know that everything you're writing about is not made up in your head. I feel that unless you can document and be certain about what it is that you're writing about, the reader is going to lose faith in your own integrity.

The White House is such an extraordinary, simple, beautiful place. It's an extraordinary piece of our history, because it is the one thing that binds our country together. We don't have a king obviously, but we have this president, and the fact that almost all of them have lived in the same place, and so much history took place in those rooms. You can't help but feel awe-inspired by being there.

They all start competing against Lincoln as the greatest president. And the [library] building becomes the symbol, the memorial to that dream.

It took me five years on Lyndon Johnson, ten years on the Kennedys, six years on the Roosevelts. Inevitably, you get shaped by the people that you're thinking about during that period of time.

I liked the thought that the book I was now holding had been held by dozens of others.

Good leadership requires you to surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives who can disagree with you without fear of retaliation.