I write in the morning at a table, longhand on yellow legal pads, just like Nixon, when I’m doing fiction.

Our form of democracy is bribery, on the highest scale.

There's a lot to be said for being nouveau riche, and the Reagans mean to say it all.

The unfed mind devours itself.

We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing.

Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they're both just aspirin.

Write something, even if it's just a suicide note.

Persuading the people to vote against their own best interests has been the awesome genius of the American political elite from the beginning.

The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so.

You know, I've been around the ruling class all my life, and I've been quite aware of their total contempt for the people of the country.

That loyal retainer of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the American president.

The true measure of a person is not in what he knows, but what he does with what he knows.

One of the great Sufis said: 'A saint is a saint unless he knows that he is one.

Writing the middle of a novel is a lot like driving through Texas. You think it's never going to end, and the scenery looks the same.

I am convinced that grandkids are inherently evil people who tell their grandparents to "just go to the library and open up an e-mail account - it's free and so simple.

I'd love to work with Aaron Sorkin on something. Just the way he writes, he has no fear in writing people that are fiercely intelligent, and I love that.

...if the spell was off, I’d have my heart eaten before I could turn around.” “Don’t you want your heart eaten?” asked the fire. [...] “Naturally I don’t,” Sophie answered.

I learned quite early on in life that we are all two people. And one of those people none of us will ever know.

I love it in the States. The roads are big, the food is big. If it was possible to be in L.A. and still live my racing life, I would move now.

Mothers always think you are working either too hard or not hard enough.

Tis beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just IT. Some women will stay in a man's memory if they once walked down a street.