What convinces is conviction. You simply have to believe in the argument you are advancing; if you don’t, you’re as good as dead. The other person wi… - Robert A. Caro

But I don’t know anything about investigative reporting.” Alan looked at me for what I remember as a very long time. “Just remember,” he said. “Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamned page.

Senator Harding, who declared in his inaugural address that “We seek no part in directing the destinies of the world.

Johnson, who had been reading a newspaper in the back seat, “suddenly … lowered the newspaper and leaned forward,” and said, “ ‘Chief, does it bother you when people don’t call you by name?’ ” Parker was to recall that “I answered cautiously but honestly, ‘Well, sir, I do wonder. My name is Robert Parker.’ ” And that was evidently not an answer acceptable to Johnson. “Johnson slammed the paper onto the seat as if he was slapping my face. He leaned close to my ear. ‘Let me tell you one thing, nigger,’ he shouted. ‘As long as you are black, and you’re gonna be black till the day you die, no one’s gonna call you by your goddamn name. So no matter what you are called, nigger, you just let it roll off your back like water, and you’ll make it. Just pretend you’re a goddamn piece of furniture.’