The Gores, I think, are a bit brighter than the Bushes, historically speaking.

I write in the morning at a table, longhand on yellow legal pads, just like Nixon, when I’m doing fiction.

Now you have people in Washington who have no interest in the country at all. They're interested in their companies, their corporations grabbing Caspian oil.

People in my situation get to read about themselves whether they want to or not. It's generally wrong. Or oversimplified - which is sometimes useful.

The best novelist of my generation is an Italian living in Paris, still working and improving - Italo Calvino.

"Terrorism" is a metaphor, it's an abstract noun. It's like having a war on dandruff. It's something from advertising, it's meaningless.

Can you imagine having a love affair going on and on decade after decade? Macabre.