As much as any other producer in the modern movie age, Harvey Weinstein has been a subject of media fascination. The grossness, the bullying, the unbridled exercising of personal power, the craven appetites, the awards and his good taste in films fed that fascination. Michael Wolff Read Quote
There was, when I came to New York in the 1970s, no more profound or moving experience than MoMA, an almost perfect piece of 20th Century modernist expression, existing in an extraordinary balance – modestly, functionally, elegantly – with the extraordinary art it held. This place changed my life. I was transformed by every visit. Michael Wolff Read Quote
One point about understanding Donald Trump is that he is always representing something which has only a casual connection to what he actually is. Michael Wolff Read Quote
If selling had been part of his job description, Rusbridger, who never met a pound he had to earn that didn’t disgust him in some visceral way, would have been disqualified long ago. Indeed, his early enthusiasm for the Internet – and a continuing principle of faith for him – was that it was free. Michael Wolff Read Quote
I am old enough to think the word ‘journalist’ is not all that noble a designation. Journalist – that record keeper, quote taker and processor of press releases – was, in the world of letters I grew up in, a lower-down job. To be a writer – once the ambition of every journalist – was to be the greater truth teller. Michael Wolff Read Quote
Long-running scandal fuels targeted political media. It’s the stuff of obsession, which is the basis of a passionate core audience. More obsession means more passion and a crazy, over-the-top audience. Equally, of course, this obsession leads to less soberness, moderation and disinterest in the media world. Michael Wolff Read Quote
Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W Bush (and, in their image, Tony Blair) bitterly annoyed their antagonists because they were – at least until the Iraq war caught up with Blair and Bush – Teflon. David Cameron is in this model. Michael Wolff Read Quote
Journalism has become a form of idealism. It is no longer, first and foremost, function, craft, service – it is mission. Michael Wolff Read Quote
Along with Trump, there are few people, on either the right or the left, who would defend the system. The system is, everyone believes, broken: it’s an insider’s game; it’s totally fixed; it serves itself. Trump codified this into a simple and vivid idea: the swamp. Michael Wolff Read Quote
Curiously, many Democrats have acceded to Clintonism not because of their cold practicality and political professionalism, but because the Clintons are the sworn enemy of the right. The Clintons, in other words, while hardly being left, have been defined as the opposite of being right – the enemy of my enemy being my friend. Michael Wolff Read Quote