If you're famous enough, the rules don't apply.

F.D.R. achieved greatness not by means of imposing his temperament and intellect on the world but by reacting to what the world threw at him.

Celebrity distorts democracy by giving the rich, beautiful, and famous more authority than they deserve.

The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.

We are riveted by the soap operas of public lives. We admire the famous most for what makes them infamous: it reassures us that they are not better and no happier than all the people with their noses pressed hard against the glass.

I think even the Hollywood money people are saying they've got to get the party back from the Clinton wing. They can't, you know, keep nominating these Northeast liberals. They have to look for people who can win.

For two centuries, the South has feared a takeover by blacks or the feds. In Obama, they have both.