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

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

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

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.

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.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

Not everyone around you are your friends or well wishers, Just be conscious.

Vulnerability does not take away your strength

Even the least of our activities ought to have some end in view.

Edsel is the artist in our family. Art is something I know nothing about.

Reapportionment is not friendly to a lot of communities and it hasn't been too friendly to mine.

If we can have a good relationship with Russia and if Russia would help us get rid of ISIS, frankly, as far as I'm concerned, that would be a positive thing, not a negative thing.

Even one moment in the company of a divine person, Krishna's pure devotee, can help a tremendous amount.

I shop like a bull - I charge everything!

I love Southeast Asia. As a child, I lived in that part of the world. My first time in Burma was in 1958 with my parents.