The first person I came out to was God. And the first conversation I ever had with anybody was in prayer.

My own early crusade for same-sex marriage, for example, is now mainstream gay politics. It wasn't when I started.

The one thing we know about torture is that it was never designed in the first place to get at the actual truth of anything; it was designed in the darkest days of human history to produce false confessions in order to annihilate political and religious dissidents. And that is how it always works: it gets confessions regardless of their accuracy.

The New York Times had not become The New York Times overnight. It had to earn its reputation day-by-day.

Al Gore's problem, in my view, is that he never liked politics. He's actually deeply uncomfortable in it but felt he had to do it because of his father. He's much more comfortable in a private sector role and has, in fact, been much more successful in a private sector role, and I admire him for that.

My father has been a rock for me every since.

I watched Nancy Pelosi and Tom Daschle. Good grief. What whining weenies.