“ Many of these new readers were not yet college-educated, but in terms of their seriousness about the world, their own literacy, and above all their ambitions for their children, they might as well hav… 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 the art of conversation with ordinary people. Is th… David Halberstam
“ Do you know what the greatest test is? Do you still get excited about what you do when you get up in the morning? David Halberstam
“ An aristocracy come to power, convinced of its own disinterested quality, believing itself above both petty partisan interest and material greed. The suggestion that this also meant the holding and wi… David Halberstam
“ Alexander Dow, his boss at Edison, who thought him immensely talented, tried to dissuade him. Electricity, yes, Dow told Ford. That’s the coming thing. But gas—no. David Halberstam
“ Nothing in the period that followed was too good for the Rouge; it had the best blast furnaces, the best machine tools, the best metal labs, the best electrical systems, the most efficient efficiency… David Halberstam
“ He was almost joyously what he had always been, a lot of gee whiz, it was all new and fresh even when surely he had seen much of it before, and it was as if he took delight in not having been changed… David Halberstam
“ You could never prove innocence, not in the match with the man who only had to imply guilt. David Halberstam
“ Most commanders wanted as many good sources of information as possible. MacArthur was focused on limiting and controlling his sources of intelligence. David Halberstam
“ Of the things I had not known when I started out, I think the most important was the degree to which the legacy of the McCarthy period still lived. It had been almost seven years since Joe McCarthy ha… David Halberstam
“ David Halberstam quoted Lyndon Johnson saying of a staffer: “I want him to kiss my ass in Macy’s window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses. David Halberstam
“ Most journalists are impatient to get their legwork done and to start the actual writing David Halberstam
“ The byline is a replacement for many other things, not the least of them money. If someone ever does a great psychological profile of journalism as a profession, what will be apparent will be the need… David Halberstam
“ Gen. Matthew Ridgeway "intended not to impose his will on his men, but to allow the men under him to find something in themselves that would make them more confident, more purposeful fighting men. It… David Halberstam
“ He never, even in the most casual conversation with friends, spoke a sentence which did not sound as if it was ready for the air. David Halberstam
“ [On writing:] "There's a great quote by Julius Irving that went, 'Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing t David Halberstam
“ What looked safe was not safe. What looked hard and unsafe was probably safer. Anyway, safe was somewhere else in the world. David Halberstam
