Playing-for-keeps Quote by David Halberstam

“Theodore Sorensen wrote for [Robert Kennedy's 1968] announcement speech: “At stake is not simply the leadership of our party, and even our own country,…

— David Halberstam

“For there was no doubt in Bundy’s mind about his ability to handle... the world. The job was not just a happenstance thing; he…

— David Halberstam

Fear was the terrible secret of the battlefield and could afflict the brave as well as the timid. Worse it was contagious, and could…

— David Halberstam

“Fresh from the rarefied environments of Harvard, the author says he purposefully took journalism jobs in small southern towns so that he could learn…

— David Halberstam

“Because history became his (Keenan's) genuine passion, he tended to see the world in terms of deep historical forces that, in his mind, formed…

— David Halberstam

Being a professional means doing your job on the days you don't want to do it

— David Halberstam

“Most journalists are impatient to get their legwork done and to start the actual writing”

— David Halberstam

“Day after day we read about them, each new man more brilliant than the last. They were not just an all-star first team, but…

— David Halberstam

If there is anything that is important to America, it is that you are not a prisoner of the past.

— David Halberstam

During their college years the oarsmen put in terrbily long hours, often showing up at the boathouse at 6:00am for preclass practices. Both physically…

— David Halberstam

“The good reporters of that era, those who were well educated and who were enlightened themselves and worked for enlightened organizations, liked the Kennedys…

— David Halberstam

“true wisdom ... is the product of hard-won, often bitter experience.”

— David Halberstam