Every president has to live with the result of what Lyndon Johnson did with Vietnam, when he lost the trust of the American people in the presidency.

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

You have to be an extremely good reader to appreciate what a good writer is. There are some people who are completely insensitive to good writing.

You can use a biography to examine political power, but only if you pick the right guy.

Lyndon Johnson, as majority leader of the United States Senate, he made the Senate work

We're taught Lord Acton's axiom: all power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I believed that when I started these books, but I don't believe it's always true any more. Power doesn't always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.

Sometimes during a ballet I'll look around and see all these rows of intent faces, concentrating on this beautiful thing up on the stage.