I think in American culture, we put value on economic success but tell people you don't have to be economically successful to be happy.

Borges was unapologetically smart and equally sentimental; a proto-geek, blind to distinctions between low pulp fiction and high criticism, experimental but never arch, and always playful, with a humor as dry as dust.

There's a tradition in American fiction that is deadly serious and earnest - like the Steinbeckian social novel.

From a very selfish point of view, I'm enchanted by the idea that a politician can come along and speak simply and clearly and truthfully to an electorate as though they are grown-ups and to feel the electorate respond to that.

What would I put in a museum? Probably a museum! That's an amusing relic of our past.

For many years, people would say, "Only child? Must have been terrible," and I wanted to say, "You are mentally ill, because it was the greatest." You got all the attention. You never had to share anything. No one ever ate your food. No one ever took your toys. But the unintended consequence was that I didn't appreciate that being universally loved was not only not required for happiness, but also not possible.

The few people who ask to have their photographs with me, I almost always say yes, except for a few circumstances, like when my family is around.