Today Washington is our Hollywood, the Senate our Warner Bros., the White House our Beverly Hills. People who never read a line of a movie magazine deal with the lives of leaders as if they were Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

The things we hate about ourselves aren't more real than things we like about ourselves.

Slowly we adjust, but only if we have to.

Maybe at 20 you can write well, but I don't think you could do what I do. Some things have to happen to you first.

Age is an accumulation of life and loss. Adulthood is a series of lines crossed.

She goes in with a prejudice and comes out with a statistic.

I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference.