You can improve your talent, but your talent is a given, a mysterious constant. You must make it the best of its kind.

Heaven's sakes, there's only one party which I call the Property Party. It's got two wings. One is called the "Republican" and one is called "Democratic." It is the same party so it makes no difference whether a Democrat's elected or a Republican's elected. The ownership remains the same.

There's a lot to be said for being nouveau riche, and the Reagans mean to say it all.

I look into my own black heart.

Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.

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.