The process of book writing for me is entirely one of trial and error.

All the best essays are epistemological journeys from ignorance or curiosity to knowledge.

I want to stress, this is the experience-growing up in a working-class family-that defined me and continues to define me. It's the core of my being. And it explains, incidentally, a good deal about my love of America.

Quite often, ambition operates on a level of irritation. Not even jealousy, just irritation.

If you help them (the crew) create good memories, they'll forget all the bad stuff

In foreign countries, when people see what Donald Trump is saying on Twitter since the election and seeing what he's saying in these calls with foreign leaders, they take everything very seriously and they take everything very literally.

What I'm really interested in, as a reader and as a writer, is the idea of the nonfiction book that is not defined by its content, by its "about"-ness. Where you read it irrespective of whether you're interested in the subject.