The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.

Everybody likes a bit of gossip to some point, as long as it's gossip with some point to it. That's why I like history. History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.

A writer represents his family history. My grandfather was a senator and my father served in the Roosevelt administration. In other words, I grew up in politics. This is why it seemed perfectly natural to take part in the battles of my time, and to participate in the writing of the history of my country.

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.

Having no talent is no longer enough.

On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.

Now you have people in Washington who have no interest in the country at all. They're interested in their companies, their corporations grabbing Caspian oil.