I never reread a text until I have finished the first draft. Otherwise it's too discouraging.

Liberal comes from the Latin liberalis, which means pertaining to a free man. In politics, to be liberal is to want to extend democracy through change and reform. One can see why that word had to be erased from our political lexicon.

The British are absolutely hung up on class, and whenever they start to really - class for the English is like sex for Americans: They start to shake all over when the subject comes up.

Ideally, the writer needs no audience other than the few who understand that it is immodest and greedy to want more.

Realism has always been called cynicism.

Little Bush says we are at war, but we are not at war because to be at war Congress has to vote for it. He says we are at war on terror, but that is a metaphor, though I doubt if he knows what that means. It's like having a war on dandruff, it's endless and pointless.

I write in different styles because I hear different voices in my head. It would be boring to have always the same voice, point of view.