“Being a part of a political party is something like being a partner in a marriage - work at it and stay loyal to it, and when you can't stomach it any longer, leave it.”

“You know, when you're young, God sweeps you up. He holds you there. The real snag is to stay there and to know how to fall. All those days when you can't hold on any longer. When you tumble. The test is being able to climb up again.”

“Once you have become president, you must also stop being a politician. Because you can't expect to rule all citizens while being a fanatic of your one political party.”

“When you already believe something, how can you suddenly stop? When you are a loyal friend, how can you no longer be one?”

“You've got to learn to leave the table
When love's no longer being served".”

“When you put four Alaskans into a room, you have five marriages, six divorces, and seven political parties.”

“It was like being given a maths problem when your brain's exhausted, and you know there's some far-off solution, but you can't work up the energy even to give it a go. Something in me just gave up.”

“How about the judgment, on 9/11, to keep reading to schoolchildren, when you are told, "The country is under attack"? I mean, talk about being non-partisan; how much of a partisan pretzel do you have to twist yourself into to work backwards to, "Yes, when a president is told the country is under attack, the proper thing to do is to freeze. To choke. To sit there like Forrest Gump." Really. That takes a lot of working backwards to that. …I know Republicans pride themselves on being loyal, and they are, but loyal to what? To a person? Or to a principle? Because if you defend a president for sitting there for even one second after he's told "America is under attack", you are loyal to a person more than you are to the truth, to a principle, or to your country. If you defend that, you have drunk the Kool-Aid. You are part of a cult. Because any president of any party would have gotten up; Democrat, Republican, Whig -- doesn't matter. "President Van Buren, America is under attack." Would have gotten up. "President Reagan, America is under attack."”

“Maybe the point is that any marriage is work, but you may as well pick work that you like.”

“What is on the other side of any addiction? Something you are desperate to avoid. You stay addicted and you can't let go because letting go means falling back into what you are desperate to avoid… such as a feeling of being unsafe, isolation, lack of belonging, loneliness, emptiness.”