I have gone on the air and announced my telephone number at the Washington Post. I go into the night, talking to people, looking for things. The great dreaded thing every reporter lives with is what you don't know. The source you didn't go to. The phone call you didn't return.
Bob Woodward

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

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

I recently read some of the transcripts of Nixon's Watergate tapes, and they spent hours trying to figure out who was leaking and providing information to Carl and myself.
Bob Woodward

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

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

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.
Bob Woodward

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

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

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

It was accountability that Nixon feared.
Bob Woodward

It would seem that the Watergate story from beginning to end could be used as a primer on the American political system.
Bob Woodward

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not a season passes without new disclosures showing Nixon's numerous attempts at criminal use of his presidential powers and in fact the scorn he held for the rule of law.
Bob Woodward