I might wear a dinner jacket once a year to our Oscar party – that’s a big thing – but I don’t go to parties. I’m social but I’m not a socialite person. – Graydon Carter
Only institutions that go about the old-fashioned business of taking in deposits from customer A and lending them out to customer B should be called banks. The rest should call themselves what they are. ‘Parlors’ would be appropriate, or ‘dens’ – words more suitable to venerable betting pursuits. – Graydon Carter
What do you call an electorate that seems prone to acting out irrationally, is full of inchoate rage, and is constantly throwing fits and tantrums? You call it teenaged. – Graydon Carter
The fact is, unlike a lot of writers, I credit the people who help me. A lot of writers out there have a ton of researchers and they don’t get credited in the book. – Graydon Carter
Magazine stories, the best ones anyway, are generally a combination of three elements: access, narrative, and disclosure. – Graydon Carter
Many men think they’re playboys, but they invariably land wide of the mark. Surrounding yourself with champagne, fast friends, and paid escorts is the very definition of the word ‘loser.’ – Graydon Carter
There are similarities between being an editor and a tailor. Tailors have a vast supply of fabrics, buttons and thread at their disposal and put it together to make a whole. That’s what an editor does – looks at society at a given time and pulls together the interesting aspects into a single issue each month. – Graydon Carter
It’s a rare moment when we take a break from the tribulations of the daily rat race to reflect on assumptions and values that we casually accept as gospel. – Graydon Carter
A workday lunch that lasts as long as a transcontinental flight is an impossibility for all but the most pliant and footloose of food tourists. To get in the game, you need a thick wallet, an adventurous palate, and a whole lot of time. – Graydon Carter
I don’t think you can be a credible, modern candidate for president without making the environment a major part of your platform. – Graydon Carter
The danger of leaving overwhelming wealth and power in the grasp of a small minority is a lesson that leaders such as ousted Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak have learned a little too late, as the demonstrations across the Arab world indicate. – Graydon Carter
I have always thought you could take the measure of a man by his sports manners – that is to say, the way in which he conducts himself on the playing field, or even over a game of chess or cards. – Graydon Carter
I think the movie business is in trouble. It’s all movies that you’ve seen before. Everything’s a remake; they want things that are familiar rather than things that surprise you. – Graydon Carter
Cod is more responsible for the discovery of the New World than almost anything else. Drove the Vikings across the North Atlantic, and John Cabot discovered America by looking for cod. – Graydon Carter
Arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence. Not a pretty cocktail of personality traits in the best of situations. No sirree. Not a pretty cocktail in an office-mate and not a pretty cocktail in a head of state. In fact, in a leader, it’s a lethal cocktail. – Graydon Carter
There’s probably a half-dozen movie actors I really like. But a lot of them just aren’t that interesting. – Graydon Carter
The last thing businessmen want to do is sit in a room filled with other businessmen. A room full of money is a pretty boring sight – unless it’s yours, of course. – Graydon Carter
We admire elephants in part because they demonstrate what we consider the finest human traits: empathy, self-awareness, and social intelligence. But the way we treat them puts on display the very worst of human behavior. – Graydon Carter
Where past generations had film cameras, scrapbooks, notebooks, and that part of the brain which stores memories, we now have a smartphone app for every conceivable recording need. – Graydon Carter
Conservatives define themselves more by their hatred of liberals than anything else, and, conversely, liberals by their distaste for conservatives. – Graydon Carter
In the Digital Age, recorders also tend to be oversharers, and with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest, they can do so on a grand scale. – Graydon Carter
Many of the architects of the Vietnam War became near pariahs as they spent the remainder of their lives in the futile quest to explain away their decisions at the time. – Graydon Carter
The greatest thing that prepared me for editing ‘Vanity Fair’ was having four kids because you just learn to subjugate your ego with the greater interest in mind. – Graydon Carter
It could safely be said that Iraqis are dying at a faster clip since the American-led invasion and occupation than they did during the last decade of Saddam Hussein’s rule. – Graydon Carter
There aren’t any looks or customs I wish would come back. Today almost anything goes. Culture constantly devours the past so there’s not much that’s missing. – Graydon Carter
As any journalist will tell you, there are few professional situations as vexing as when a friend becomes involved in a major story that you feel you must cover. – Graydon Carter
As a father of five, I sometimes feel I’ve spent a lifetime watching Disney musicals. – Graydon Carter
