The moment the curtain rose on that first ballet, I knew something wonderful and new had come into my life. I can still see the first scene. The ball….

Among the reasons that you go into journalism, I suppose, are some rather idealistic, even foolish reasons. In my case one of the reasons was I wante….

At the ballet, you really feel like you're in the presence of something outside the rest of your life. Higher than the rest of your life..

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 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 ne….

In a democracy, supposedly we hold power by what we do at the ballot box, so therefore the more we know about political power the better our choices ….

You can lose a reader in a blink of an eye. If a person is an engineer or chemist or an anthropologist or whatever, you spoil the whole book for that….

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

The New York City Ballet is obviously speaking to a whole new generation and bringing it the same wonder and beauty that it brought previous generati….

I deliberately made an effort not to become an expert on the ballet..

The right of a minority is so important in a democracy..

The Senate is an unknowing world.

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..

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,….

I try to have a mood or a rhythm for a chapter..

I write from seven to about noon. I used to try to write longer, but I read and I found that I was always getting myself tired by working in the afte….

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 th….

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 i….

My interest is in power. How power works..

My predictions are notably inaccurate.