Quote

A lot of people in government don't really read books at all.

I read all the time... I read a lot of history books.

I read several books at one time.

Well, I was always a bit of a political junkie. Even as a kid I would read biographies of presidents and of civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.

I'm constantly running across people who have never heard of books I think they should read.

I teethed on books of heroes such as Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln and King David.

Anyone can write one book: even politicians do it. Starting a second book reveals an intention to be a professional writer.

I'm a complete democrat in terms of who buys my books.

When I left the Senate in 1979, there were several publishers who had approached me about writing an autobiography, and I knew that politicians write books for many reasons, but at that time, I just thought I wasn't ready and my story wasn't over, and I knew I had a new life ahead of me.