Joe Klein Quotes

32 quotes in 586 categories

• Bush promised a foreign policy of humility and a domestic policy of compassion. He has given us a foreign policy of arrogance and a domestic…
• Cynicism is what passes for insight among the mediocre.
• Anonymous sources are a practice of American journalism in the 20th and 21st century, a relatively recent practice. The literary tradition of anonymity goes back…
• I got into journalism because I came of age in the '60s. It just seemed one way for me to get things done.
• Novel writing should never be confused with journalism. Unfortunately, in the case of Primary Colors, a fair number of journalists confused.
• You can't get all of your news from Jon Stewart, especially since it's a comedy show.
• For me, a really radical position for journalism to take is to stop being cynical. Cynicism is what passes for insight among the mediocre.
• Barack Obama's inspirational whoosh to the presidency in 2008 was unusual. Most campaigns are less exhilarating; indeed, they are downright disappointing - until someone wins.
• For those of us who consider ourselves political moderates, life is a dispiriting slog, a sorry mix of rectitude and ineptitude.
• I think that if you make a strong statement of principle, even if the folks disagree with you, people will respect you for it.
• I've been described as a grizzled political veteran.
• Political courage requires clarity.
• We journalists are never so idiotic as when we analyze things that we shouldn't be analyzing.
• What do you do in a novel? You take recognizable characters from your own life, and you fantasize about what they're really like.
• You know, larger than life is always better than smaller than life in politicians. And, you know, God save us from mediocrities.
• You know, larger-than-life politicians have larger-than-life strengths and larger-than-life weaknesses.
• I believe that poverty is often the result of inappropriate behavior - out-of-wedlock births, dropping out of school, crime and drugs - which should not…
• I came to political consciousness with John F. Kennedy's magnificent 1961 Inaugural Address. It seemed the start of something fresh and exciting, and it was.
• Affirmative action was always racial justice on the cheap.
• Diversity has been written into the DNA of American life; any institution that lacks a rainbow array has come to seem diminished, if not diseased.

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