I trained myself to be organized.

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

Nobody believes this, but I write very fast.

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.

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.

Robert Moses wasn't elected to anything. We're taught that in a democracy power comes from being elected. He had more power than anyone, and he held it for 48 years.

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 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.

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 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.