A huge number of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. You have a people that don't know anything about the rest of the world, and you have leaders who lie to them, lie to them, and lie to them.

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

I would be literally patrician in the sense that the senators in ancient Rome were called conscript fathers, paters, from which comes the word patrician. So if you come from a senatorial family, you are literally patrician in that sense, but that doesn't mean that you couldn't be Billy Carter, you know, of recent memory.

You hear all this whining going on, "Where are our great writers?" The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?

No one reads novels anymore. And I don't see the situation improving. People prefer video games, reality TV, and films. There are so many reasons now not to read novels.

Having no talent is no longer enough.

All children alarm their parents, if only because you are forever expecting to encounter yourself.