“Islam is in a formative period struggling to consolidate the vast reach won by both inspiration and force at its founding. Two centuries along, the faith of Muhammad hangs like an intricate veil: a religion still searching for institutional wholeness, a set of lessons to live by.”

“As an editor, you develop a B.S. meter—an internal warning system that signals caution about journalism that doesn't feel trustworthy. Sometimes it's a quote or incident that's too perfect —a feeling I always had when reading stories by Stephen Glass in the New Republic. Sometimes it's too many errors of fact, the overuse of anonymous sources, or signs that a reporter hasn't dealt fairly with people or evidence. And sometimes it's a combination of flaws that produces a ring of falsity, the whiff of a bad egg. There's no journalist who sets off my bullshit alarm like Ron Suskind.”

“The substance of faith is a hope in the unseen.”

“Younger colleagues tended to draw untested self-confidence from their bonuses and prestigious degrees.”

“Security is by far the city's predominant business.”

“These were lobbyists—many of them compensated quite handsomely not to react as human beings.”

“If the breadth of perspectives is wide enough to represent the fullest range of views, consensus is unlikely. If consensus is swiftly achieved, it probably means too few voices have been heard.”

“It is one thing to rouse the passion of a people, and quite another to lead them.”

“Push the needle into some middle range of guarded optimism.”

“Rapid change, accommodating it can be one of the great human capacities. But living through it can be the stuff of stress and often suffering.”

“He is now judging himself, harshly, by his captors' rules.”