Altruism is a brief phase through which some adolescents must pass. It is rather like acne. Happily, as with acne, only a few are permanently scarred.

The hatred Americans have for their own government is pathological, if understandable. At one level it is simply thwarted greed: since our religion is making a buck, giving a part of that buck to any government is an act against nature.

I'm in Hollywood right now, surrounded by nothing but the sons and grandsons of movie stars.

I don't deny or affirm anything. I'm not very personal.

The unfed mind devours itself.

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.

I came out of Capitol Hill. Well, that's just not an ordinary background for a writer of the ordinary American sort.