I'm so used to being separate from the publication process. I turn in the book to the editor and then I'm done.

No one grows up thinking they want to be a ghostwriter. No one plans on that job.

I think that the celebrity memoir as a genre is looked upon as a lesser form. One of my missions as a ghostwriter has been to elevate that form. Maybe that sounds pretentious!

I think one of the big things that's come out of ghostwriting for me is real compassion for the complexity of fame.

We exploit celebrities by caring about shallow things like whether they've gotten a facelift. And we violate their children constantly. But we also love them in a way.

Lizzie Pepper is pure fiction! The character is pulled from tabloids. But I think we all look at celebrity marriages and invest in them.

I think people dismiss celebrity memoirs as unreal, contrived and maybe partially made up. But that's definitely not true for anything that I write.

I'm handed a bunch of existing data. My job is to put that in the best narrative form. That is a puzzle I love to solve.

None of my clients are criminals, but to a much lighter degree that's what goes on. I hear the story, and I hear it with the level of detail that breeds empathy.

Working with somebody who has a more interesting life than I do - and getting to take on that life temporarily - is an endlessly interesting way to have the experience of writing memoir.

I've been writing books without ego for a very long time. I feel like it will get what it deserves. Or won't get what it doesn't deserve.

The secret to youth is to fill your mind with beauty! Amen

I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's.

The Two Most Important Words In The World Are Honesty And Sincerity, If You Can Fake These You've Got It Made.

There's a Cuban saying: Bicho malo nunca muere. Loose translation: The good die young but the wicked live forever. It seems to apply to Fidel. I hope it applies to me.

As you advance in life, different passions can take the front seat, so for me, business is where my primary focus is right now.

People are watching the way we act, more than they are listening to what we say.

Every time we give our word, it counts. For the most part, people give their word entirely too often. Our word is a precious commodity and should be treated as such.

A minor symptom of wars is the cancerous growth of committees.

This wasn't food - it was what food became if it had been good and gone to food heaven.

I think love and friends are two things that you don't chase. True love and true friends come.