But from a distance. I would have left you whole and wholly for the delectation of those who wanted more and cared less.

When I passed forty I dropped pretense, 'cause men like women who got some sense.

In a magazine, one can get - from cover to cover - 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

I encourage you to live with life. Be courageous, adventurous. Give us a tomorrow, more than we deserve.

I look at some of the great novelists, and I think the reason they are great is that they're telling the truth. The fact is they're using made-up names, made-up people, made-up places, and made-up times, but they're telling the truth about the human being- what we are capable of, what makes us lose, laugh, weep, fall down, and gnash our teeth and wring our hands and kill each other and love each other.

The country didn't get that way in a week; we've had years and years of getting behind in our economy. So President [Barack] Obama stepped into a hellhole and people wanted him to change it as soon as he came in. But he's got his adversaries to deal with in the House and Senate, so it's not easy.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.