I knew I was supposed to be a writer; I had made that declaration in the closet of my soul.

Is a gesture of charity genuine or is it a kind of deep moral tax write-off?

Conversations are the most direct way to connect with people.

Heavy booze is a big time vacation, but you come back with a headache.

Writing books is a nice retreat. There's nothing quite like diving into a book for a few hours. That is a big time vacation.

It's hard to say conversation has become a minimal thing, because look at the rise of mobile communications in the last 10 years. It used to be only the President had a mobile phone. Now everyone on earth, even if they have nothing else, they have a cell phone. It's a larger anthropological shift in my mind than even the tattoo age in the United States.

I don't know any more about America than one knows being trapped in it.