Jack and Bobby Kennedy were too young, too attached to real family to transfer affection and loyalty to those that of their blood or region or upbringing.

— David Pietrusza

Jack had an actor's control." Chuck Spalding

— David Pietrusza

Jack Kennedy protected a mature and presidential image – tough, yet not unduly combative.

— David Pietrusza

JFK apparently felt genuine sympathy for his 1960 presidential opponent Richard Nixon. He felt that, with Nixon's frequent shifts in political philosophy and reinventions, he must have to decide which Nixon he will be at each stop. This, Kennedy reasoned, must be exhausting.

— David Pietrusza

JFK had a way of grabbing grandeur from mishap.

— David Pietrusza

JFK had to act before his fragile body betrayed him.

— David Pietrusza

John F. Kennedy "is, in reality, a deeply serious man, reflective in his mental habits, historically minded, and given to seeing men and nations and events in the sobering context that history provides. As a human being, he is often humorous, easily bored by total routine but open to all fresh experiences, careless of the superficialities of life, warmly loyal to his friends, and oddly detached about himself. His most curious trait, in fact, is his way of discussing his most vital affairs with the dry humor and cool analytical remoteness that most people reserve for the affairs of others. – Joseph Alsop

— David Pietrusza

John F. Kennedy responded, as he often did when at his best, skillfully mixing dollops of wit with, self-deprecation, and the principle of not-really-going-near-the-question.

— David Pietrusza

Jousting with an obvious hoodlum couldn't hurt.

— David Pietrusza

Nixon wanted view and advice brought to him through intermediaries. He wanted information filtered as it came to him – and he wanted his filters to filter his will back to those whom he must direct.

— David Pietrusza