These are two opposing forces, and whenever I am in active politics, I stop writing. And when I'm writing, I don't politick.

I'm in favor of sexual encounters.

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."

Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. ... I have 10 or so, and thats a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.

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

There are a great many people who have a vested interest in maintaining the stupidity of the American public.

Whether you have an abortion, what you put in your own body, with whom you have sex - these are not affairs of the state. A government does not exist to control the citizens. When it does, it is a tyranny, and must be fought. The tree of liberty, Jefferson warned us, must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and patriots.