As thrilling as it was, speechwriting is ultimately frustrating for someone who wants to be a writer.

The great power the president has is that he is the most prominent person in the biggest media event on the planet. He has the attention of the nation and the world. When he speaks, everybody listens.

The thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong Republican party.

Donald Trump has declared that he's going to divest himself from his companies and that his sons will be separated from the government. But his sons who run the company are regularly attending his meetings with senators, making it clear to everybody, you want access to Trump you pay.

While there is an attempt by the Trump people to say that California isn't really America. California certainly seems like America to me.

If you watch a movie from between the end of the Second World War and the mid-1970s, whenever anyone steps out in a white lab coat, they're there to offer a solution. They're there to tell you how the laser's going to save the day. They're going to give you James Bond's array of tools. After about 1975, whenever the man in the white lab coat steps out, it's to come up with some crazy idea that's going to bring ruin on everybody. "Let's clone dinosaurs!" And the last we see of him is disappearing down the gullet of the Tyrannosaurus rex.

More Irishmen died fighting for Britain in World War I than died fighting against her in all of Ireland's bids for independence combined.