The Top Eight Quotes from the Jackie Kennedy Tapes

...On her husband--quoting from The Times: "He was, she says, kind, conciliatory, forgiving, a gentleman, a man of taste in people, furniture, books. Fondly, she recalls him ever reading--while walking, dining, bathing, doing his tie. She remembers with amusement how he would change into pajamas for his 45-minute afternoon nap in the White House. She lets slip a reference to a 'civilized side of Jack' and 'sort of a crude side,' but she clarifies: 'Not that Jack had the crude side.'"

On her marriage--quoting from The Times once again: "Her marriage, she remarks, was 'rather terribly Victorian or Asiatic.' Her aim was to provide 'a climate of affection and comfort and détente'--and the children in good moods. She suggests the couple never really had a fight. She insists she got her opinions from her husband. On that last point, at least, Michael Beschloss, the historian, who was enlisted to write an introduction and annotations to the book, said in an interview, 'I would take that with a warehouse of salt.'

On the Cuban Missile Crisis: She told her husband, "If anything happens, we're all going to stay right here with you. Even if there's not room in the bomb shelter in the White House. ... I just want to be with you, and I want to die with you, and the children do, too--than live without you."

On her husband's opinion of LBJ: "Jack said it to me sometimes. He said, 'Oh, God, can you ever imagine what would happen to the country if Lyndon were president?'....