For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.

That loyal retainer of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the American president.

The United States is my subject, but as Hawthorne once wrote, "the United States are suited for many admirable purposes, but not to live in."

Don't ever make the mistake with people like me thinking we are looking for heroes. There aren't any and if there were, they would be killed immediately. I'm never surprised by bad behaviour. I expect it.

It is the spirit of the age to believe that any fact, no matter how suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no matter how true.

All I want is that Americans still be able to read the alphabet in a hundred years. I am not very ambitious.