Reading is another thing that has made me more human by exposing me to worlds I might never have entered and people I might never meet.

the separation of church and state grew out of a desire, not so much to protect government from religion, but to protect religion from government.

I don't really read what people write about me. Someone gives my novel one star; are they a troll? Are they someone who hates my politics and so has decided to do that?

All reading is good reading. And all reading of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens is sublime reading.

It is this that, finally, I will try to teach my sons about sex, after I've explained fertile periods and birth control and all the other mechanics that are important to understand but never really go to the heart of the matter: I believe I will say that when you sleep with someone you take off a lot more than your clothes.

If we really feel like we're comfortable in our own skins now, we have a longer period of time to live out that kind of third or fourth act of our life.

That's really what I want in a leader; I want somebody who's really, really smart.