David Quotes

I sort of feel we have to owe some respect to the process and owe some respect to the electorate and the people who voted Donald Trump, on the assumption that they have something to teach us.

Donald Trump has a pre-modern monarchic family structure. His business is a monarchy with family members all around. His administration is a monarchy with family members all around.

I think that it's an arguable position, whether with Hamas and ISIS around, whether there should be a Palestinian state, but it's a defensible position, given the current circumstances.

Putin's an egomaniac, so there are two ways he can process his ego mania. He can say, "Oh, I stood up to the U.S.," or, "Hey, I'm essential to the world order."

It’s not that Egypt doesn’t have a recipe for a democratic transition. It seems to lack even the basic mental ingredients.

Fundamentalism is still on the march.

The more people doubt their own beliefs the more, paradoxically, they are inclined to proselytize in favor of them.

What family you were born into matters so much more than it did before in a perverse way.

If you just rely on one model, you tend to amputate reality to make it fit your model.

I've observed a few things about the few really great people I've had a chance to meet and cover...They need to be around people. You and I require sleep. They require people.

People have been raised in a morality that says, "If it feels all right for you, it's probably OK."

Institutions do all the things that are supposed to be bad. They impede personal exploration. They enforce conformity. But they often save us from our weaknesses and give meaning to life.

Research by Donald A. Redelmeier and Sheldon M. Singh has found that, on average, Oscar winners live nearly four years longer than nominees that don't win.

I don't know if I'm sexist, though I have not paid much attention to the women's bracket.

Liberals lost touch with working-class Americans because they never had to have a conversation about values with those voters; they could just rely on the courts to impose their views.

I think we are all disgusted by the way George W. Bush's administration has allowed honesty and candor to seep into the genteel world of international affairs.

The most interesting thing is that the White House staff and the people under Donald Trump, at least some portion of them, some large portion of them, seem to have turned against Donald Trump.

A wise soul once declared that the ultimate power of the writer is that he has the choice of whom he wants to be co-opted by.

When you cover politics, you realize that knowing how to talk about character matters more and more. The way we hold ideas is more important than the ideas.

When you get a big crisis, everyone wants somebody with some experience and some credibility.

Bragging about what a good deal you got is one of the many great art forms that my people, the Jews, have introduced to American culture.

The core threat to democracy is not in the White House, it's the [Bush] haters themselves.

The school asks a person who has achieved a certain level of career success to give you a speech telling you that career success is not important.

Most people don't form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling.

We live in a culture that encourages us to be big about ourselves, and I think the starting point of trying to build inner goodness is to be a little bit smaller about yourself.

Donald Trump is sitting on the control deck of the starship Enterprise, and he can push a lot of pretty buttons, but those buttons aren't connected to anything. And so nothing is happening.

Politics is based on social identity, and so, again, there is going to be differences between rural and urban and between left and right.

I have seen [Betsy DeVos] present a few times. I don't really know her. But I have seen her present on education policy, and she's not a stupid person.

The reason the Betsy DeVos case was the centerpiece case for the Democrats wasn't about her weakness as a knowledgeable person on education policy.

On the [Betsy] DeVos case, I agree that the gun - her gun position is kind of weird, kind of crazy, but I do think she does know about public schools.

On the [Andrew] Puzder point, I do agree there has been a double standard.

I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of judges overruling presidents on national security matters.

On the larger issue of the travel ban, our friend Charles Krauthammer of The Washington Post I think put it pretty well. I'm not sure it's illegal, but it's extremely stupid.

Republicans are living in a hermetically sealed Republican universe, just as Democrats are. And so they're responding to their own universe, even if it leads to electoral downfall.

Donald Trump's world view is that it's a dangerous, miserable place, people are out to get him, and he needs to strike them first.

It's part of Donald Trump's psychodynamics to always care about his press coverage intensely. He's more interested in that than anything else.

I generally think debates within a party should not be treated as a scandal. They should be treated as a sign of strength, to be honest.

Trade has suddenly become massively unpopular. I think that's massively unjust. I think free trade has been wonderful for America on balance.

I think actually in any party it's a sign of general health to have different views, and especially on the subject of trade.

I would have swapped out Donald Trump's frontal cortex for somebody else's for a little more self-control.

The more attention Hillary Clinton gives to the country, the less people seem to like her.

When you talk about the problem of illegal immigration, people are angry and polarized. When you talk about the answers, the debate gets a little different.

I take a benign view of digital connectedness. I notice in most young people's lives, Facebook and such doesn't replace normal dating or hanging out, it just facilitates it.

Often, I go and see films where I can see the beats coming. So, if I read something where I don't see the beats coming and it takes me somewhere unexpected, that's a great thing to build upon.

I'm not the most emotionally attuned guy in the world. My wife says that me writing about emotion is like Gandhi writing about gluttony.

Since 2005, a majority of Americans, according to the Gallup poll, have said it was wrong and a mistake to go into Iraq.

Trade agreements are a net benefit for the world, and a net benefit for our foreign policy, and in the long run, given the dislocations, are a net benefit for us, too.

I do think British and American politics rhyme. They go in cycles. They go in Thatcher-Reagan cycles, Blair-Clinton cycles.

The natural human reaction is to greet hatred with hatred, revenge by revenge. That's the natural genetic reaction.

That is the job of the Catholic Church, to be a balance to the materialistic drives of our culture and of economy.