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.
The right of a minority is so important in a democracy.
My predictions are notably inaccurate
There's a theory, and I think the theory is right, that in order to make a change you've got to make the whole language of the page harmonious. Well, that's a lot easier with a computer.
Herman Brown was a businessman who wanted value for money spent. His relationships with politicians were measured by that criterion.
You can use a biography to examine political power, but only if you pick the right guy.
My interest is in power. How power works.
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.
Everything seems to be going faster and faster. It's really harder to create something that endures. The New York City Ballet has succeeded in doing that.
I've always felt that no one understands why some books of non-fiction endure and some don't, because there's not much understanding among many non-fiction writers that the narrative is terribly important.
If things are going well, if the writing's coming along, I jump out of bed happy. And if the previous day has been bad, I get out of bed disgruntled.
The Senate is an unknowing world
I like new ballets because they're totally new. As you get older, new experiences are harder and harder to come by, so it's pretty great to have a new experience.
I deliberately made an effort not to become an expert on the ballet.
I was trying to learn about Lyndon Johnson when he was young and creating his first political machine in the Texas hill country. I moved there for three years. You had to learn that world
I trained myself to be organized.
Nobody believes this, but I write very fast.
I try to have a mood or a rhythm for a chapter.
I never went to a ballet until I was 45 years old. I don't know why.
I think President Obama has done more than he is given credit for.
I used to work very long hours. Then I started to realize that the stuff that I was writing in the late afternoons, I was generally throwing out. So I quit earlier than I used to.
If it's coming near the end of a chapter and I'm really getting into it, I tend to get up earlier and earlier, just because I'm excited to get to work.
Lyndon Johnson, as majority leader of the United States Senate, he made the Senate work
