Bob Woodward Quotes

Why are we talking about talking? Why negotiating about negotiating? It's very simple. If you want to get to peace, put all your preconditions on the side, sit down opposite a table, not in a studio, by the way.

I do believe that in order to be a successful negotiator that as a diplomat, you have to be able to put yourself into the other person's shoes. Unless you can understand what is motivating them, you are never going to be able to figure out how to solve a particular problem.

So much of life is a negotiation - so even if you're not in business, you have opportunities to practice all around you.

Tactically, yelling at Google is unwise.

The capability of negotiating... is something that means you not only have to understand fully what you believe and what your national interests are but in order to be a really good negotiator, you have to try to figure out what the other person on the other side of the table has in mind.

A huge amount of negotiations and diplomacy has nothing to do with bartering or arguing but is just trying to get everyone [doing the negotiating] on the same page. It takes yours, days, even weeks sometimes.

Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.

We need a government, not politics. Because there's too much politics. Of course there should be debate. But there seems to be so much pettiness and not enough good faith. It is civilized to agree to disagree, and this idea is slowly disintegrating. The great statesmen of the past knew this, and I think it helps drive civilization.

I'd like to add that negotiating is not something to be avoided or feared - it's an everyday part of life.

Skillful conversationalists can explore disagreements and make points in ways that feel constructive and positive rather than combative or corrective.

One of the other things I think that I've been able to do in my life, is to listen well.

The Senate is a place filled with goodwill and good intentions, and if the road to hell is paved with them, then it's a pretty good detour.

I just don't believe that you have to come in and insult people when you want to change things.

I have tried to maintain civil relationships with everyone I meet - and, even if I violently disagree with them, try to be respectful.

We're all negotiators.

I was the middle of five children, and we were five very opinionated siblings. That probably pushed me to learn to speak up for myself.

It is better to decide a difference between enemies than friends, for one of our friends will certainly become an enemy and one of our enemies a friend.

It is always disarming to treat with the enemy, so to speak.

I think placing preconditions before negotiations is the quickest way to undermine peace.

Agreements are always the product of time and place.

There is nothing that I'd love to do more than negotiate with Palestinians. This is my desire. This is my dream. This is my mission.

You can get along very well in this world by simply coming up with a quantity of reasonably valid statements.

Peace comes through dealing with people. Peace doesn't come at the end of a bayonet or the end of a gun.

Your political reputation affects how likely allies are to trust you, and what kind of deals they'll offer at the negotiating table. There's also some emotional response in there, so factions do bear grudges. Just like the real thing.

Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof; it is temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.