The waitress had the appearance of a very old hooker who had finally found her place in life

There's also a down side.

Richard Nixon was a criminally insane Monster - Bill Clinton is a black-hearted Swine of a friend.

The thing that was important to me about Hemingway at the time was that Hemingway taught me that you could be a writer and get away with it.

Wake up and ponder the future

One of the few ways I can almost be certain I'll understand something is by sitting down and writing about it. Because by forcing yourself to write about it and putting it down in words, you can't avoid having your say on the subject. You might be wrong, but you have to think about it very intensely to write about it.

Journalism, to me, is just another drug - a free ride to scenes I'd probably miss if I stayed straight.