Quotes By Bob Woodward

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's hostility to lying, and there should be.

Deep Throat was a very unfortunate name given to the source by the managing editor of The Washington Post.

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

The legislator learns that when you talk a lot, you get in trouble. You have to listen a lot to make deals.

Some newspapers have a hands-off policy on favored politicians. But it's generally very small newspapers or local TV stations.

The source known as Deep Throat provided a kind of road map through the scandal. His one consistent message was that the Watergate burglary was just the tip of the iceberg.

It was accountability that Nixon feared.

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.

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

Clinton... believes that the Washington Press Corps is so out of touch that it is absolutely inconceivable that reporters would understand the issues that people are really dealing with in their lives.

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.

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.

Nixon's attempts to order subversion of various departments was bound to come out in some form.

I deal with first-hand sources. And give the people, even John Sununu, the opportunity to respond to what I've been told by first-hand sources.

Lawyers didn't seriously get involved in the Watergate stories until quite late, when we realized we were on to something.

Way before Watergate, senior administration officials hid behind anonymity.

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 think that everyone is kind of confused about the information they get from the media and rightly so. I'm confused about the information I get from the media.

Newspapers that are truly independent, like The Washington Post, can still aggressively investigate anyone or anything with no holds barred.

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

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.

The failure of the system to deal quickly was attributable to Nixon's lying, stonewalling and refusal to come clean. So it took 26 months for the final truth to be known.

The cloud of doubt that surrounds political figures tends to remain and never dissipate or be clarified.

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.

We need to police ourselves in the media.

Nixon had some large achievements in foreign affairs. They will be remembered. But a president probably gets remembered for one thing, and Watergate will head the Nixon list, I suspect.

The number of illegal activities were so large that one was bound to come out and lead to the uncovering of the others. Nixon was too willing to use the power of government to settle scores and get even with enemies.

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

When you practice reporting for as long as I have, you keep yourself at a distance from True Believers. Either conservatives or liberals or Democrats or Republicans.