We start at 25, as he begins to transform himself through sheer force of will from this asthmatic, nearsighted 125-pounder to this Sherman tank of a man.

Patience will achieve more than force.

[One night in the mid-'80s, Morris and his wife, Sylvia, had dinner with Reagan at the White House. Morris was being considered for the role of official biographer.] Damned if I can figure him out, ... Is he a political genius, or a bore?

The fact that the Reagans were not particularly hospitable to the Bushes during the eight years of the Reagan presidency was a well-known fact in the White House and in Washington. The Bushes were and remain loyal to Reagan's memory, but the interview I had with them in December of 1988 made their private frustrations clear, and it is naturally embarrassing for them to have to confirm those feelings in public.

[Reagan's eldest child Maureen recently said she has concluded Morris] wasted an incredible and irreplaceable opportunity, ... For your information, three of Reagan's four children have supported my portrait of Ronald Reagan, saying that it represents the father they remember and love. Only Maureen, of the four children, is saying that she refused to read the book. This is a pity, because if she did, she would find it not only fair to him, but in places flattering to her.

there are floods of praise coming in as well as criticism.