To speak today of a famous novelist is like speaking of a famous cabinetmaker or speedboat designer. Adjective is inappropriate to noun.

Write something, even if it's just a suicide note.

By 1948, the Italians had begun to pull themselves together, demonstrating once more their astonishing ability to cope with disaster which is so perfectly balanced by their absolute inability to deal with success

It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy's edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create one world. Instead of one world, we have star wars, and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet's dead.

I have been on the cover of Time magazine. My father was on the cover of Time, and my grandfather was on the cover of Time.

No reform ever came from the bottom, and it was always people who understood how the ruling class worked who turned out to be the reformers.

The war against terror is like a war against dandruff. It's a metaphor. It's not about anything.