Age bothers everybody. I was never narcissistic about my looks, but people thought that I should be so therefore I was.

I was taught to read by my grandmother. Central to her method was a tale of unnatural love called 'The Duck and the Kangaroo'. Then, because my grandfather, Senator Gore, was blind, I was required early on to read grown-up books to him, mostly constitutional law and, of course, the Congressional Record. The later continence of my style is a miracle, considering those years of piping the additional remarks of Mr. Borah of Idaho.

I am glad my life is coming to an end. To think that it might last another five hundred years, now that would be terrible, in my case.

I started to read my first book at about the age of six. I started to write a book simultaneously. Not to compete, just to augment. And that's how one starts. Or I started.

The more money an American accumulates, the less interesting he becomes.

The Americans are clever. They thoroughly understand things that have to do with money, war, death, sickness. And there is also a real tradition of skepticism in this country.

Write what you think, what you imagine, what you suspect!