97 Quotes by Robert Caro

You come in off the street, through the doors of the theater. You sit down. The lights go down and the curtain goes up. And you’re in another world.

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 never went to a ballet until I was 45 years old. I don’t know why.

The Senate is an unknowing world.

There used to be this feeling under Eisenhower and Kennedy and Roosevelt and Truman that government was a solution. Trust in the presidency fell precipitously under Johnson – real lows. And it’s never come back. It’s a trend that, if you’re liberal, is really discouraging.

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 generations.

I never wanted to do biography just to tell the life of a famous man. I always wanted to use the life of a man to examine political power, because democracy shapes our lives.

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 sometimes feel that if your book sells more than 20 years, then there’s something in it that you can say, gee, I did something that endures, that’s timeless.