The New York Times published the guest list on the front page. The masks were a brilliant concept.

Golf cannot be played in anger, or in any mood of emotiional excess. Half the golf balls struck by amateurs are hit if not in rage surely in bewilderment, or gloom, or in cynicism, or even hysterically - all of those emotional excesses must be contained by the professional. Which is why balance is one of the essential ingredients of golf. Professionals invariably trudge phlegmatically around the course - whatever emotions are seething within - with the grim yet placid and bored look of cowpokes, slack-bodied in their saddles, who have been tending the same herd for two months.

You do not cut a check in the state of Kansas to John Doe, executioner. The executioner is paid in cash so there's no trail to him

I never understood people who don't have bookshelves.

He still has the same way of calling to me, as if I'm still new to him, as if he has yet to get over me.

My favorite monologue in the book is Kate Harrington's story of her relationship with Truman.

The smaller the ball used in the sport, the better the book.