When I need to work up my nerve to write a tough column, I try to think of myself as Emma Peel in a black leather catsuit. Maureen Dowd More Quotes by Maureen Dowd More Quotes From Maureen Dowd Good and evil are not like the Redskins and the Cowboys. Maureen Dowd good-and-evil cowboy evil Reagan didn't socialize with the press. He spent his evenings with Nancy, watching TV with dinner trays. But he knew that to transcend, you can't condescend. Maureen Dowd watching-tv dinner evening My eating habits were so bad for many years that I didn't actually know the intricacies of making a salad. Maureen Dowd salad eating years I feel like I owe it to the readers to try to pull back the veil and give them the honest version of what's going on. But it's not more fun. If Obama, as he does sometimes already, gets a little snippy with me about something I've written, you're thinking, 'Oh God, the president of the United States is already annoyed with me.' Maureen Dowd fun giving thinking For two centuries, the South has feared a takeover by blacks or the feds. In Obama, they have both. Maureen Dowd feds century two The Obamas, especially Michelle, have radiated the sense that Americans do not appreciate what they sacrifice by living in a gilded cage. They've forgotten Rule No. 1 of politics: No one sheds tears for anyone lucky enough to live at the White House. Maureen Dowd sacrifice appreciate white Afghanistan is more than the 'graveyard of empires.' It's the mother of vicious circles. Maureen Dowd empires circles mother Now that Hillary [Clinton] has won Pennsylvania, it will take a village to help Obama escape from the suffocating embrace of his rival. Certainly Howard Dean will be of no use steering her to the exit. It’s like Micronesia telling Russia to denuke. Maureen Dowd pennsylvania russia use We are riveted by the soap operas of public lives. We admire the famous most for what makes them infamous: it reassures us that they are not better and no happier than all the people with their noses pressed hard against the glass. Maureen Dowd glasses noses people [On journalists:] We are a noisy, imperfect lot, struggling to scribble what has been called the first draft of history. Maureen Dowd journalism struggle firsts Women have become so obsessed with not withering, they've forgotten that there are infinite ways to be beautiful. Maureen Dowd forgotten beautiful way Women are affected by lunar tides only once a month; men have raging hormones every day. Maureen Dowd tides months men Journalism, spooked by rumors of its own obsolescence, has stopped believing in itself. Groans of doom alternate with panicked happy talk. Maureen Dowd rumor journalism believe Settling is about not embracing what is best for you and accepting what you really don't want. When you settle, you accept less than you deserve. Settling becomes a habit and a way of life, but it doesn't have to be. According to Maureen Dowd, "The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for Maureen Dowd deserve-you want way Military guys are rarely as smart as they think they are, and they've never gotten over the fact that civilians run the military. Maureen Dowd smart military running F.D.R. achieved greatness not by means of imposing his temperament and intellect on the world but by reacting to what the world threw at him. Maureen Dowd greatness mean world I find having a column a very difficult form of journalism. I'm not a natural like Tom Friedman and Anna Quindlen. Maureen Dowd journalism form natural Personally, I've decided to stop evolving. Maureen Dowd decided evolve I strained to remember where I was or even what I was wearing, touching my green corduroy jeans and staring at the exposed-brick wall. As my paranoia deepened, I became convinced that I had died and no one was telling me. Maureen Dowd jeans wall touching I think the evangelicals think they're in a holy war now. Maureen Dowd holy war thinking