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

If you want to rise in politics in the United States, there is one subject you must stay away from, and that is politics.

One is sorry one could not have taken both branches of the road. But we were not allotted multiple selves.

Somebody has to keep score and I decided I was going to do it. I'm a born score-keeper and I realize, like an umpire, that my decisions may cause distress.

I have always regarded as a stroke of good fortune that I was not born or brought up in a small American town; they may be the backbone of the nation, but they are also the backbone of ignorance, bigotry, and boredom, all in vast quantities.

To speak today of a famous novelist is like speaking of a famous cabinetmaker or speedboat designer. Adjective is inappropriate to noun.

Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.