Is this the best you can do?

One oft-told tale about Kissinger… involved a report that Winston Lord had worked on for days. After giving it to Kissinger, he got it back with the notation,

“Is this the best you an do?”

Lord rewrote and polished and finally resubmitted it; back it came with same curt question, After redrafting it one more time-and once again getting the same question from Kissinger-Lord snapped,

“Damn it, yes, it’s the best I can do.”

To which Kissinger replied:

“Fine, then I guess I’ll read it this time”

- Kissinger, Walter Isaacson — 1992