Michael Hastings Quotes

By the second sentence of a pitch, the entirety of the story should be explained.

I went into journalism to do journalism, not advertising.

If someone tells you something is off the record, I don't print it. If they don't tell me something is off the record, then it's fair game.

I want to be the greatest investigative reporter of my generation.

I think when war becomes your life, I think it's very difficult to have the proper perspective to be able to create a fully balanced policy.

I think it's very difficult to make people care about natives in another country.

I thought Gen. McChrystal was unfireable, that his position was secure.

Despite failing to get bin Laden, the U.S. government and media portrayed the early Afghanistan war as a great victory.

Look at the violence in Pakistan and the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan: the more troops we put in the more violent Pakistan becomes.

I write for fun. I had written a kind of media satire, but I doubt it will see the light of day. It was just a personal project.

To General McChrystal, those men on his team are his family. You know, these guys, they would do anything. They would die for each other.

During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the military conducted only a handful of drone missions.

General McChrystal wanted to be on the cover of 'Rolling Stone.'

I've been in this business now for almost ten years. I've done a lot of stories. I have a pretty good track record.

I have a deep-seated skepticism about the morality of violence. Violence is almost always morally corrosive.

Oh, don't let him pull that 'Pearl Harbor I'm going off to war' stuff on you.

It was either write or die for me.

When writing for a mass audience, put a fact in every sentence.

I'm glad you're the one I get to leave the parties with.

I welcome all interviews with 'Rolling Stone' magazine, and I'm sure people will talk to me in the future.

My younger brother is a decorated combat veteran and was a platoon leader in Iraq.

The genius of David Petraeus has always been his masterful manipulation of the media.

You basically have to be willing to devote your life to journalism if you want to break in. Treat it like it's medical school or law school.

I grew up reading Holocaust literature at the beach, Gulag literature on winter holidays, Vietnam memoirs on spring break.