Younger colleagues tended to draw untested self-confidence from their bonuses and prestigious degrees.

Every person has their pantheon - the Bible, Hollywood, Shakespeare - their way of understanding the world.

The President, who really had been mostly managing his one-man Barack Obama narrative and journey his whole life, without executive experience, certainly - he's not a governor. Some governors, of course, they have experience in executing power, which is something fairly unique, actually, in government. And he has, neither, a set of nourishing experiences.

I don't have to deal with the issues of the daily news cycle.

It's exciting to work with the kids so devoid of irony, so unguarded. And also terrifying

By virtue of some of the ways the game is played, in terms of message discipline, in terms of access for reporters, and especially in the way that sources and subjects, especially famous subjects, treat the media, almost by default there's more news that's falling into books.

Many years later, a psychiatrist friend of mine said something to us. He said, "Respect denial." It's a powerful force.