All Americans born between 1890 and 1945 wanted to be movie stars.

I’ve always said, ‘I have nothing to say, only to add.’ And it’s with each addition that the writing gets done. The first draft of anything is really just a track.

Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they're both just aspirin.

In fact, life itself is a contradiction if only because birth is the direct cause, in every single case, of death

I can understand companionship. I can understand bought sex in the afternoon, but I cannot understand the love affair.

I was taught to read by my grandmother. Central to her method was a tale of unnatural love called 'The Duck and the Kangaroo'. Then, because my grandfather, Senator Gore, was blind, I was required early on to read grown-up books to him, mostly constitutional law and, of course, the Congressional Record. The later continence of my style is a miracle, considering those years of piping the additional remarks of Mr. Borah of Idaho.

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