A lot of the fiction I read growing up was post-war American, and not all of it centers on Manhattan, but around people of the Mad Men generation, people like John Cheever and, in more modern times, Don DeLillo, who I always mention.

Shame is one of the greatest aphrodisiacs in the world, anyway, built into religion.

Have I had therapy? I went to a yoga class once.

You should be as alive as you can, until you're totally dead!

America's work ethic is non-stop; it's not even enshrined in law that workers have to get their two weeks holiday money. But Americans work harder than everyone else I can think of.

Paper acts as an eraser on the mind, as soon as you look at what you've written.

You know it's a sad day when your child looks at you and asks 'Daddy, are these organic?'