I think all writers have a bit of genius in them, and a bit of talent. Genius retreats but talent improves.

Mere fact has no chance of being formally perfect. It will get in the way, it will be all elbows.

[On STDs] This be Nature’s way of recommending monogamy.

They did more than take our youth away. They also took away the men we were going to be.

The Uruguayans have a sort of purity. I don't know where they got it, and I doubt even if they know from where they got it. Perhaps they didn't kill off their major population.

America is a younger country than England, obviously, and as self-awareness is forming in America - are we a collection of immigrants, are we a load of Italians and Germans and Jews and Brits and Irish, or are we a country with a soul and an identity? - there was a subliminal sense, they knew that the writers would be the ones who would answer those questions.

It's tremendously important how you get on with the other sex. Your life record on that is incredibly important. You never really think about any of your other achievements.