And what gift of America to the rest of the world is actually most appreciated by the rest of the world? It is African American jazz and its offshoots. What is my definition of jazz? Safe sex of the highest order.

It's perfectly ordinary to be a socialist. It's perfectly normal to be in favor of fire departments.

Do you think Arabs are dumb? They gave us our numbers. Try doing long division with Roman numerals.

The right of the people to peacefully assemble and petition their government for a redress of grievances is now worth a pitcher of warm spit. That's because TV will not come and treat it respectfully. Television is really something.

There is no peace, I'm sorry to say. We find it. We lose it. We find it again. We lose it again.

Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

I think that novels that leave out technology misrepresent life as badly as Victorians misrepresented life by leaving out sex.