The people in Coming of Age were far less curmudgeonly than you would think. The greater percentage said that without the young we'd be lost. One woman, a former Southern belle, now 87, a philanthropist, says, "Well, these young, their history's been stolen from them. And what have we done to make them respect us?"

I presumably lost $150,000 in the depression of 1937—on my one stock investment—because I did everything Lehman Brothers told me. I said, well, this is a fool’s procedure . . . buying stock in other people’s businesses.

If there is knowledge, it lies in the fusion of the book and the street.

Chicago is not the most corrupt American city. It's the most theatrically corrupt.

I find labels "liberal" and "conservative" of little meaning. Our language has become perverted along with the thoughts of many of us.

One day I visited a guy who had made a fortune as a broker. He was sitting in his office with his computer. I hire people from here and make deals from this room, he told me. Then he took me to the trading room. Nobody was talking to anybody else, the place was silent as a tomb, they were all sitting there watching their terminals - a great word, terminal. I tell you, it scares the crap out of me.

Work is born in us. We take to it kindly or unkindly. The terms may be easy or harsh, but the contract is binding.