We are living in the United States of Alzheimer's. A whole country has lost its memory. When it can't remember yesterday, a country forgets what it once wanted to be.

But once you become active in something, something happens to you. You get excited and suddenly you realize you count.

I hope that memory is valued - that we do not lose memory.

I hope for peace and sanity - it's the same thing.

I suppose if I have an epitaph it would be: "Curiosity Did Not Kill This Cat." I don't see retiring in the sense that we view it - I don't see how I could. Dying at the microphone or at the typewriter would not be bad.

When it comes to the news, the corporate view is `objective,' all else is propaganda.

My doctors were of one mind: unless something was immediately done, I had maybe six months to live. A quintuple bypass was suggested. Quintuple! I was impressed, though somewhat disturbed because I was in the middle of work on a new book.