Ever since John Kennedy, Democrats have had a weakness for dashing younger men like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and, I suppose, Jimmy Carter. They balance their tickets with senior statesmen - Lyndon Johnson, Joe Biden, Walter Mondale. (Al Gore was young but played ancient).

Back in George W. Bush's second term, when diplomatic realism began to overtake foolish bellicosity, the president developed one of his patented nicknames for the two most powerful neoconservative journalists, William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer: he called them 'the Bomber Boys.'

Cynicism is what passes for insight among the mediocre.

Dictating to dictators doesn't work; they are congenitally delusional about their own indispensability.

You can't get all of your news from Jon Stewart, especially since it's a comedy show.

What do you do in a novel? You take recognizable characters from your own life, and you fantasize about what they're really like.

I believe, I believe that the people who voted in those primaries for Donald Trump were at least helping him along with his message of hate toward immigrants, toward Muslims.