“Say it, don’t spray it” has long been our philosophy when it comes to spitting while talking and celebrity profiles.

Janine Gibson at The Guardian seems to agree in her piece on Graydon Carter. With comments like "[Vanity Fair] is like running the Metropolitan Opera in a way," we're beginning to think that in between all the self-rationalizations, Toby Young might have had a point. Our favorite quotes after the jump.

The greatest thing that prepared me for editing Vanity Fair was having four kids because you just learn to subjugate your ego with the greater interest in mind.

I'm a very shy person but I forced myself during the Oscar evenings to go out and be engaging to people and make them feel comfortable. … And then you learn how to seat people. Life is all about seating and lighting.

It's not what you put in, it's what you leave out. … If you walk into the Waverly Inn and the first person you saw is Simon Cowell you'd go, 'OK I get this place now'. Everybody else could be fantastic but — I don't mean to pick on Simon Cowell out if he was the first person … it'd be a different restaurant.

A nice old lady in the mid-west wrote to me saying, 'Mr Carter, I really love your magazine but I can't stand your political views and if you change them I'll resubscribe'. I sent her a letter saying, 'Listen, I'll slice out my editor's letter and you try it for 12 months and see if you like it with that part of it gone. And we're waiting to see what she thinks of it.