Seymour Hersh Quotes

I sometimes think that we underestimate Trump, but that’s just my opinion. I always like to tack the other way, I guess.

Using words to make other people less big made me feel bigger, though the psychological dimension to that… well, I don’t want to explore it.

I came out of a lower-middle-class background. At that time, everyone used to define themselves: Stalinist, Maoist, whatever. I thought they meant ‘miaowist’. Seriously! Something to do with cats.

I say to people, ‘Do you have any idea how hard it is to do that, to write 7,000 words in 10 hours or 12 hours for the front page of the ‘New York Times’ and to know that they trust you so much that that it’s going to lead the paper?’ It’s hard. I mean, it’s a feat.

The day after 9/11, we should have gone to Russia. We did the one thing that George Kennan warned us never to do – to expand NATO too far.

Yeah, I shoot my mouth off. There’s a huge difference between writing and thinking.

I have this sort of heuristic view that journalism, we possibly offer hope because the world is clearly run by total nincompoops more than ever… Not that journalism is always wonderful – it’s not – but at least we offer some way out, some integrity.

I don’t think much of the journalism that I see.

Bush can talk about 100,000 people wanting to go work in the police or in the army. It’s because there’s nothing else for them to do. They’re willing to stand in line to get bombed because they want to take care of their family.

I can’t fudge what I write. But I can certainly fudge what I say.

I don’t necessarily buy the story that Bin Laden was responsible for 9/11.

I happen to write a lot of stories that make Kissinger look bad. I’d rather that the stories weren’t true, but they all happen to be true.

I didn’t know I was gonna be a writer when I started out.

Most of the important secrets that I’ve known about, the real secrets that are known about aren’t worth publishing.

Maybe I am not an easy guy.