This sounds corny, but I once told a kid when I was in a the library conference, the best - not the best, what I really hope for is that someday 20, 30 years from now, some kid, 12-year-old, 15-year-old, in Des Moines will be going through the stacks, if they have stacks anymore - they probably won't - and find a book of mine and get something from it.

[Barack Obama to be] much worse [than George W. Bush].

I read like everybody - like every other writer.

Max Askeli was a very courageous, principled man up to a point. He had left Italy before he was thrown in jail by [Francesco] Mussolini.

However, I never thought that [George W.] Bush himself was, in any sense, "evil."

I really envy, in some respects, some of the people of faith I've known - A.J.[Muste], for example.

You have an electorate [in America] that wants to see people who are not tough on crime.