A reporter's ability to keep the bond of confidentiality often enables him to learn the hidden or secret aspects of government.
- Bob Woodward Quote

After Nixon resigned in 1974, he engaged in a very aggressive war with history, attempting to wipe out the Watergate stain and memory. Happily, history won, largely because of Nixon's tapes.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

Deep Throat did serve the public interest by providing the guidance and information to us.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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

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

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

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

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

I gave my word that this source would not be identified unless he changed his mind. He has not.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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

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

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

I suspect there have been a number of conspiracies that never were described or leaked out. But I suspect none of the magnitude and sweep of Watergate.
- Bob Woodward Quote

I think journalism gets measured by the quality of information it presents, not the drama or the pyrotechnics associated with us.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

If information is true, if it can be verified, and if it's really important, the newspaper needs to be willing to take the risk associated with using unidentified sources.
- Bob Woodward Quote

If you interviewed 1,000 politicians and asked about whether the media's too soft or too hard, about 999 would say too hard.
- Bob Woodward Quote

It was accountability that Nixon feared.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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

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

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

The biggest rap on me is that I don't find a Watergate every couple of years. Well, Watergate was unique. It's not something Carl Bernstein, I, or the Washington Post caused.
- Bob Woodward Quote

The central dilemma in journalism is that you don't know what you don't know.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

The Washington Times wrote a story questioning the authenticity of some of the suggestions made about me in Silent Coup. But as a believer in the First Amendment, I believe they have more than a right to air their views.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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?
- Bob Woodward Quote

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

There's hostility to lying, and there should be.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

Way before Watergate, senior administration officials hid behind anonymity.
- Bob Woodward Quote

We need to police ourselves in the media.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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

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.
- Bob Woodward Quote

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