In America, people of a certain age ask, 'Where were you when Kennedy was shot?' In my house you were more likely to be asked, 'Where were you when you first read 'The Catcher In The Rye?

It was never the act itself but our own understanding of it that defeated us, over and over again.

Always live your life with your biography in mind.

People had an illogical, self-serving rationale when it came to interpreting the behavior of others.

Within every elaborate lie, a kernel of truth.

Always live your life with your biography in mind," Dad was fond of saying. "Naturally, it won't be published unless you have a Magnificent Reason, but at the very least you will be living grandly.

You journalists bulldoze life's mysteries, ignorant of what you're so ruthlessly turning up.