Quotes from Robert Caro

What would be the good of rushing? You want these books to last.

Everyone believed the Senate could not really be led. It used to take so long to rise up through seniority. In two years Lyndon Johnson is assistant leader of his party. In four years he is the leader of his party.

The Senate is an unknowing world.

Now, for this book I had to learn the world of the Senate, which is really for all that's written about the Senate, an unknowing world and its mores, and the way things work with subcommittees and all. I loved learning about that.

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

Nobody believes this, but I write very fast.

Most Sundays, with the exception of football Sundays, I work, because I don't take days off as long as I'm working on something that's supposed to be all in the same mood.

When you have enough power to do what you always wanted to do, then you see what the guy always wanted to do.

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

You have to be an extremely good reader to appreciate what a good writer is. There are some people who are completely insensitive to good writing.

The ballet embodies the notes of music. And sometimes you almost feel like you can see the notes dance up there on the stage.

My interest is in power. How power works.

You can use a biography to examine political power, but only if you pick the right guy.

There is a time to fish and a time to mend nets.

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.

Long Island is shaped the way it is largely because of Robert Moses. Long Island is a perfect example of how political power shapes people's lives every day.

You don't have to explain something you didn't say.

There is a time to fish and a time to mend nets.

You read in every textbook that cliché: Power corrupts. In my opinion, I've learned that power does not always corrupt. Power can cleanse. When you're climbing to get power, you have to use whatever methods are necessary, and you have to conceal your aims. Because if people knew your aims, it might make them not want to give you power.

I have been unable to save much money in my life. I have been in politics, and in politics an honest man does not get rich. -Sam Rayburn (whose savings at his death totaled $15,000)

In later years, when Lady Bird Johnson would talk about the time that her husband had been a senator, she would sometimes say, those were the happiest twelve years of our lives. Those years had been happy - and now they were over. The Senate had been Lyndon Johnson's home. Now he had left it.

Bob Moses had learned what was needed to make dreams become realities. He had learned the lesson of power. And now he grabbed for power with both hands. To free his hands for the grab, he shook impatiently from them the last crumbs of the principles with which he had entered public service and for which, during his years of idealism, he had fought so hard.

My predictions are notably inaccurate.

I think President Obama has done more than he is given credit for.