Once I decide to do something, I can't have people telling me I can't. If there's a roadblock, you jump over it, walk around it, crawl under it.
I only choose to write about people who are alive, are extremely powerful and as such have influenced our lives. I try to go behind their constructed myths to find the humanity of the person. It takes me about four years on every book and requires hundreds of interviews so I choose people whose lives I respect and achievements are worth recording.
I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed that Katharine Carr Esters claims that she was 'tricked' into divulging her true feelings about Oprah and that she now denies that she revealed to me the identity of Oprah's biological father.
People forget that unauthorized does not mean untrue and authorized does not mean authentic.
Kennedy was haunted by the Bay of Pigs invasion but carried the country through the Cuban Missile Crisis. He later increased the number of U.S. military advisers to South Vietnam to more than 16,000.
Presidents often disappoint, but first ladies rarely do.
I am what is known as a benched Catholic and disillusioned by the church doctrine. I believe in things the Catholic Church does not believe in: divorce being one, and a women's right to choose being another.
I don't give you editorial control. I want to meet you. I want to interview everybody who's ever known you. I want to see your correspondence. I want to see your bank statements. But you will have no control over what I write. That's why I really believe in the unauthorized biography.
While many applauded Oprah for opening her heart to young girls in South Africa, some criticized her for not investing in the youth of America.
Barack Obama and Michelle Obama don't go to Georgetown. The Clintons did, indeed. And the Clintons go out and about in Washington now. They go to neighborhood restaurants.
Gay marriage has jumped out of the closet on to the front page. Everyone from the president of the U.S. to retired four-star general Colin Powell is embracing the issue, now supported by most Americans. Still, a few people, like former First Lady Laura Bush appear to be conflicted.
I admired Eugene McCarthy’s courage and although I left his Senate staff after four years to accept a job as the researcher on the editorial page of the Washington Post, I remained an admirer.
I was raised Irish Catholic and went to Holy Names Academy, an all-girl's private Catholic school. I loved the nuns there and I love them to this day.
There's still time for redemption if I live long enough, don't you think?
The difference between authorized and unauthorized biographies is the difference between riding in carriage or squatting in steerage.
My biography of Frank Sinatra is not paean to his music but rather an illumination of the man behind the music, who once described himself as 'an 18-karat manic-depressive who lived a life of violent emotional contradictions with an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as happiness.
I have believed in the biographies I have written. I truly can tell you that they have influenced our society politically, culturally, socially.
I tend to place my own value in spirituality rather than religiosity.
I would love to do an unauthorized biography about Congress. It's like a secret society up there.
JFK used to say the bishops and the cardinals were all Republicans, but the nuns were Democrats! I sort of believe that too.
Studies have been done showing that there really are gender differences, that women do bring more congeniality and compromise to the table.
Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to ensure fair pay for women in the workplace. In addition, he succeeded in getting a measure passed to end discrimination against gays in the military.
Both Kennedy and Obama exuded a dash of glamour in their roles as commander-in-chief and became the darlings of Hollywood. As president, each brought to the White House a fashionable and accomplished First Lady, two adorable young children and scene-stealing pets.
It would be morally reprehensible not to tell the truth... Everything I have written has stood the test of time.
John F. Kennedy brought style and charisma to the White House and a first family that captivated the country: a handsome, witty president, an elegant first lady, and two adorable young children.
