Bob Woodward Quotes
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Newspapers that are truly independent, like The Washington Post, can still aggressively investigate anyone or anything with no holds barred.
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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.
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I have found people don't want to be told. That they can figure it out.
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Any suggestion that I'm writing about political operatives because I'm interested in political operatives misses the entire point.
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The fact of the Watergate cover-up is not nearly as interesting as the step into making the cover-up. And when you understand the step, you understand that Richard Nixon lied. That he was a criminal.
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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.
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The central dilemma in journalism is that you don't know what you don't know.
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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.
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I'm not going to name some of my colleagues who are very well-known for their television presentation, but they wouldn't know new information or how to report a story if it came up and bit them.
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Because of Watergate in part, I am kind of a magnet for calls and information and suggestions.
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There are people who take rumors and embellish them in a way that can be devastating. And this pollution has to be eradicated by people in our business as best we can.
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I gave my word that this source would not be identified unless he changed his mind. He has not.
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It was accountability that Nixon feared.
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I recently read some of the transcripts of Nixon's Watergate tapes, and they spent hours trying to figure out who was leaking and providing information to Carl and myself.
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I give lectures for money, but all the money goes to charity. So, I make no money from it.
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Clinton feels a profound alienation from the Washington culture here, and I happen to agree with him.
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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.
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I don't think it's useful for somebody to argue with reviews.
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'It's all over,' he said to Cooke. 'You've got to come clean. The notes show us the story is wrong. We know it. We can show you point by point how you concocted it.'
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Watergate provides a model case study of the interaction and powers of each of the branches of government. It also is a morality play with a sad and dramatic ending.
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Lawyers didn't seriously get involved in the Watergate stories until quite late, when we realized we were on to something.
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When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making.
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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.
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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?