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."

Class is the most difficult subject for American writers to deal with as it is the most difficult for the English to avoid.

Before the cards that one is dealt by life are the cards that fate has dealt: one's family.

Many human beings enjoy sexual relations with their own sex; many don't; many respond to both. This plurality is part of our nature and not worth fretting about.

We must always remember that the police are recruited from the criminal classes.

When anyone says to me, 'Can you keep a secret?' I say, 'Why should I, if you can't?'

By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over.