Herman Brown was a businessman who wanted value for money spent. His relationships with politicians were measured by that criterion.

Someday a political genius will come along and make the Senate work.

My interest is in power. How power works.

To my mind, the prose in a non-fiction work that's going to endure has to be of the same quality as the prose in a work of fiction that endures.

There used to be this feeling under Eisenhower and Kennedy and Roosevelt and Truman that government was a solution. Trust in the presidency fell precipitously under Johnson - real lows. And it's never come back. It's a trend that, if you're liberal, is really discouraging.

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

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.