Richard Ben Cramer

Even if you had the wherewithal to embarrass a reporter, there was no mechanism to do it. And in most cases, you might as well save your breath because the reporter had no shame anyway.

The average-guy routine works only so much, and then people begin to want something more.

At some point... Israel ground away, or gave away, her birthright of loyalty from the West.

Losing the presidency is not like losing any other office. More than any other office, it's a vote about you as a whole human being.

People feel overloaded, that politics has become kind of a public utility: hot- and cold-running politics any time of the day or night.

You can say you're going to take a vacation, and you can even take the time, but you might as well not, because the book is still sitting in your head.

He was J. DiMaggio, and that was his business. He always was served and hosted - he was America's guest. And I really I don't think we would have the athletes that we have today and the social system in which they live without DiMaggio and what he did.

This book-promotion stuff is like a political campaign. You work your butt off, and at the end of the day, you can't tell if it's made a damned bit of difference.

It's not fit work for an adult just dragging idols off the shelf. It's too easy.

People think of DiMaggio as the exemplar of a 'golden age,' and in some ways, he was. But in the most fundamental ways, he was really the first modern athletic superstar because, number one, he ushered in the era of big money; and number two, he never did anything except that - he never really took another job in another industry.

There is not often much policy discussion with the Bushes. There isn't much introspection. Several generations of Bush men could pass by in which the great questions of humankind will go undiscussed.