Sometimes I think I'm a one-trick pony because I'm not very inventive about new ways of telling stories.

I cannot find words to express the depth of my loss or outrage about what's happening to this country. I don't know if I can find the words for it, but if this country ever recovers, it will not be in my lifetime. If I were elected President, the first thing I would do would be to set up a Department of Restoring the Bill of Rights. I would have 10,000 people working there.

I realised I'd never climb Everest but thought I could still write a book

I'm lucky in having found the perfect partner to spend my life with

Rule number something or other -- never tell anybody anything unless you're going to get something better in return.

The hope for a messiah puts too much on that one person. And you think that absolves you of personal responsibility and you don't have to act because that person will do it for you.

My parents were liberal intellectuals but even they expected me to stay at home and look after my younger siblings and do the housework.