...a man does not die for words. He dies for his relation to them.

History is not melodrama, even if it usually reads like that.

To be an American is not...a matter of blood; it is a matter of an idea--and history is the image of that idea.

I've been to a lot of places and done a lot of things, but writing was always first. It's a kind of pain I can't do without.

The image that fiction presents is purged of the distractions, confusions and accidents of ordinary life.

Politics is a matter of choices, and a man doesn't set up the choices himself. And there is always a price to make a choice. You know that. You've made a choice, and you know how much it cost you. There is always a price.

Real writers are those who want to write, need to write, have to write.