Politics is the business of getting power and privilege without possessing merit

If you are young and you drink a great deal it will spoil your health, slow your mind, make you fat - in other words, turn you into an adult.

The great thing about being a print journalist is that you are permitted to duck. Cameramen get killed while the writers are flat on the floor. A war correspondent for the BBC dedicated his memoir to 50 fallen colleagues, and I guarantee you they were all taking pictures. I am only alive because I am such a chicken.

You can't shame or humiliate modern celebrities. What used to be called shame and humiliation is now called publicity.

Smoking is very bad for you and should only be done because it looks so good. People who don't smoke have a terrible time finding something polite to do with their lips.

If government were a product, selling it would be illegal.

In Washington journalists can afford to live almost as well as people who work for a living.