Quotes By Bob Woodward

People like to pigeonhole and say, Well, I'm a Washington insider, and you know, that's quite silly. What does that even mean?

Deep Throat's information, and in my view, courage, allowed the newspaper to use what he knew and suspected.

Many people have their reputations as reporters and analysts because they are on television, batting around conventional wisdom. A lot of these people have never reported a story.

I think people are smart enough to sort it out. They know when they're watching one of these food fight shows where journalists sit around and yell and scream at each other, versus serious issue reporting.

There is a garbage culture out there, where we pour garbage on people. Then the pollsters run around and take a poll and say, do you smell anything?

I have found people don't want to be told. That they can figure it out.

I recently did the David Letterman Show about my book. He was very serious and made no jokes and it caught me off guard a little bit. He was much more serious than some of the joke shows that journalists get on.

Any suggestion that I'm writing about political operatives because I'm interested in political operatives misses the entire point.

Suppose Watergate had not been uncovered? I'd still be on the City Desk.

Because of Watergate in part, I am kind of a magnet for calls and information and suggestions.

Nixon's grand mistake was his failure to understand that Americans are forgiving, and if he had admitted error early and apologized to the country, he would have escaped.

I give lectures for money, but all the money goes to charity. So, I make no money from it.

Even now there is no evidence that anyone involved in the Nixon operation was going to threaten us.

There may yet be another Watergate book. I have thought a book about the aftermath of Watergate and its impact could be done, perhaps by me or someone else.

When you hear in the tape recordings Nixon's own voice saying, We have to stonewall, We have to lie to the Grand Jury, We have to pay burglars a million dollars, it's all too clear the horror of what went on.

Watergate is an immensely complicated scandal with a cast of characters as varied as a Tolstoy novel.

When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making.

I don't think there will ever be a permanent truce, but I believe the media needs to be more careful and be willing to count to 10 before rushing on the air or into print.

The central dilemma in journalism is that you don't know what you don't know.

I have gone on the air and announced my telephone number at the Washington Post. I go into the night, talking to people, looking for things. The great dreaded thing every reporter lives with is what you don't know. The source you didn't go to. The phone call you didn't return.

I don't think voters give a hoot about the character of their political advisors, except to the extent that character reflects on the candidates.

I believe Watergate shows that the system did work. Particularly the Judiciary and the Congress, and ultimately an independent prosecutor working in the Executive Branch.

I believe there's too little patience and context to many of the investigations I read or see on television.

Using these unnamed sources, if done properly, carefully and fairly, provides more accountability in government.

Certain political figures think when you call them and ask them for a comment; that you are somehow doing something that you shouldn't be doing.

I have written things that Republicans and Democrats and all kinds of figures have either hated or felt very uncomfortable about. Because in doing these long projects and books, you get close to the bone. And they're not calling me up and asking me for dinner.

It would seem that the Watergate story from beginning to end could be used as a primer on the American political system.

We're not going to have another Watergate in our lifetime. I'm sure.

Clinton feels a profound alienation from the Washington culture here, and I happen to agree with him.

I don't think it's useful for somebody to argue with reviews.