Quotes from John Dickerson

Mom would talk about Eric Sevareid and Murrow and Howard K. Smith the way other parents talk about sports figures.

The locker rooms that Donald Trump is in are not at the cut-rate gym with the broken treadmills - they are at his swish golf clubs. They are places of stature.

I couldn't wait to get out, and at 14, I moved into a three-room Georgetown town house with Dad. I never went back. When they eventually sold the house, in 1984, Mom had a goodbye party for 'Merrywood.' I refused to go.

A picture excites the love of parenting that comes through meditation on a child.

Would most politicians have gone to a meeting with someone advertised as being an agent of the Russian government?

One of the great things about children is that they have no other concern than to be simply interested in things. It is considered by some the height of mindfulness to approach the world afresh like a child.

Claims of a decisive 'turning point' in any election are often overblown - more often, such a moment merely crystallizes a change that's been days or weeks in the making. But you can make a real case that Obama's Jefferson-Jackson Day speech is a pivot point in America history.

A campaign gives you focus. You wake up to a different hotel alarm clock every day, but you know your mission.

Politicians have done some grim things in pursuit of the office. President Franklin Roosevelt was a philanderer; nevertheless, he pushed aides to use his opponent Wendell Wilkie's affairs to hurt him. He even tutored aides on how to spread rumors without getting caught.

There is a basic idea to this fighting spirit: that there are standards worth devoting yourself to that are more important than your self-interest.

When the kids were young, they just wanted to be around us. We were units of comfort and support. As they get older, we work the turnstile, helping the exasperated customer pass whatever temporary obstacle is keeping them from their next exciting thing. Now we're the ones who just like having them in the room.

In the modern presidency, the Chief Executive is expected to respond to anxious national moments with words that stabilize the country. President Trump chose a different route. He did not give a stirring speech of unity or create a national gathering point around common ideals. He spent his passion on other things.

In the end, Obama won, stealing the change message from John Edwards and beating back Hillary Clinton's focus on experience. And the race turned on a remarkable speech Obama gave on the night of Nov. 10, 2007, in Des Moines.

I am always looking for material - whether for my notebooks or for Twitter or Instagram - which means I'm looking for meaning.

Some of us do talk about women like objects, which dehumanizes them.

Barack Obama's convention speech in 2004 had made him a political star, and he arrived in Iowa to crowds unseen in caucus history.

Inaugural speeches are supposed to be huge and stirring. Presidents haul our heroes onstage, from George Washington to Martin Luther King Jr. George W. Bush brought the Liberty Bell. They use history to make greatness and achievements seem like something you can just take down from the shelf.

An old theory holds that air conditioning ruined Congress. Members no longer had to flee the Washington heat to spend the summer back home. The long vacation forced them to bond with their constituents.

If people feel like the boss doesn't respect them, they don't stretch for the boss.

To be the windowpane - this is basically a bastardization of what Orwell said about good writing - so you can get the conversation going and frame it the right way and make sure people aren't lost. And then you let the candidates illuminate the issues themselves.

Every president makes the Oval Office theirs.

My children are vampires. I don't mean that they are going to dress as vampires for Halloween. I mean that, like vampires, they cannot be captured on film.

When I interviewed John McCain in 2000 about whether he had taken medication for his anger, I remember thinking, 'Let's see how this is going to work.'

President-elect Donald Trump says he's looking for a simple plan for defeating ISIS within his first 30 days of taking office. But even as ISIS has suffered setbacks in Iraq and Syria, its violent ideology continues to spread.