Everyone believed the Senate could not really be led. It used to take so long to rise up through seniority. In two years Lyndon Johnson is assistant leader of his party. In four years he is the leader of his party.

There's a feeling about it. You feel almost like a cabinetmaker, laying planks. There's a real feeling when you know you're getting it right. It's a physical feeling.

You come in off the street, through the doors of the theater. You sit down. The lights go down and the curtain goes up. And you're in another world

I don't think of my books as being biographies. I never had any interest in doing a book just to write the life of a great man. I had zero interest in that. My interest is in power. How power works.

I never went to a ballet until I was 45 years old. I don't know why.

As you get older, you sometimes feel that it's harder and harder to get something new and wonderful to come into your life.

I think President Obama has done more than he is given credit for.