It is almost nicer being a godfather than a father, like having white mice but making your nanny feed them for you.

Those 40 or 50 national correspondents who had followed Kennedy since the beginning of his electoral exertions into the November days had become more than a press corps - they had become his friends and, some of them, his most devoted admirers.

There is no excitement anywhere in the world, short of war, to match the excitement of the American presidential campaign.

Whether a man is burdened by power or enjoys power; whether he is trapped by responsibility or made free by it; whether he is moved by other people and outer forces or moves them - this is of the essence of leadership.

America is a nation created by all the hopeful wanderers of Europe, not out of geography and genetics, but out of purpose.

Politics in America is the binding secular religion.

The power of the press in America is a primordial one. It sets the agenda of public discussion; and this sweeping political power is unrestrained by any law. It deter- mines what people will talk and think about-an authority that in other nations is reserved for tyrants, priests, parties and mandarins.