The middle of the road is where the white line is—and that’s the worst place to drive.

The line is presented as something Frost said in a 1956 educational TV interview (WQED) that was later printed in Collier’s. He was responding to being asked whether he was a “middle-of-the-roader,” and he used a driving metaphor to reject the label.

It argues that trying to occupy a perfectly centrist position can be hazardous: like driving on the lane divider, it invites trouble from both sides and is not a stable or safe place to be.

“Somebody said to me the other day, ‘Are you a middle-of-the-roader?’ So I said, ‘Well, if you want to call me bad names. The middle of the road is where the white line is—and that’s the worst place to drive.’”

“I’m not a middle-of-the-roader because in the middle of the road is the worst place to drive.”