Robert Caro
Robert Caro
Robert Allan Carois an American journalist and author known for his celebrated biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth30 October 1935
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
quit remember
It's very easy to fool yourself that you're working, you know, when you're really not working very hard. I mean, I'm very lazy. So for me, I would always have an excuse, you know, to go - quit early, go to a museum, you know. So I do everything I can to make myself remember this is a job. I keep a schedule.
learn learning loved work written
Now, for this book I had to learn the world of the Senate, which is really for all that's written about the Senate, an unknowing world and its mores, and the way things work with subcommittees and all. I loved learning about that.
ballet rest-of-your-life like-you
At the ballet, you really feel like you're in the presence of something outside the rest of your life. Higher than the rest of your life.
years democracy taught
Robert Moses wasn't elected to anything. We're taught that in a democracy power comes from being elected. He had more power than anyone, and he held it for 48 years
doors light world
You come in off the street, through the doors of the theater. You sit down. The lights go down and the curtain goes up. And you're in another world
excited get-up ends
If it's coming near the end of a chapter and I'm really getting into it, I tend to get up earlier and earlier, just because I'm excited to get to work.
rose ballet firsts
The moment the curtain rose on that first ballet, I knew something wonderful and new had come into my life. I can still see the first scene. The ballet was Divertimento No. 15
majority-leader united-states made
Lyndon Johnson, as majority leader of the United States Senate, he made the Senate work
predictions
My predictions are notably inaccurate
writing long afternoon
I used to work very long hours. Then I started to realize that the stuff that I was writing in the late afternoons, I was generally throwing out. So I quit earlier than I used to.
new-experiences harder
I like new ballets because they're totally new. As you get older, new experiences are harder and harder to come by, so it's pretty great to have a new experience.
zero book writing
I don't think of my books as being biographies. I never had any interest in doing a book just to write the life of a great man. I had zero interest in that. My interest is in power. How power works.
ballet want mystery
Ballet is sort of a mystery to me. And I don't want to unravel that mystery.
choices political democracy
In a democracy, supposedly we hold power by what we do at the ballot box, so therefore the more we know about political power the better our choices should be and the better, in theory, our democracy should be.