Wordstruck is exactly what I was—and still am: crazy about the sound of words, the look of words, the taste of words, the feeling for words on the tongue and in the mind.

You learn, just as you learn good manners, how to approach things with a certain amount of diplomacy.

Words make another place, a place to escape to with your spirit alone.

Parents can plant magic in a child's mind through certain words spoken with some thrilling quality of voice, some uplift of the heart and spirit.

The greatest luxury is being able to go to movies and plays now and then in the afternoons.

Change is legitimate and inevitable, for our language is a mighty river, picking up silt and flotsam here and discarding it there, but growing ever wider and richer.

After I became a citizen, I felt freer to say what I thought about this country, both negative and positive. I think I had been, consciously and subconsciously, biting my tongue in the past.

I am not really retired, and may never be completely, but I can't think of a better place to contemplate retirement than New York City.

Yes, after some time spent last year on other commitments, most of them speaking engagements, I am now about halfway through a novel that I hope will come out in 1998.

Television has created a nation of news junkies who tune in every night to get their fix on the world.

I'm happy to have my own opinion and air it when I think it's necessary.

Love is hateWar is PeaceNo is YesAnd we're all free.

The wars of people will be more terrible than those of kings.

Nowadays he doesn't think of his wife, though he knows he can turn around and evoke every move of her, describe any aspect of her, the weigh of her wrist on his heart during the night.

A successful person is just a novice who started and kept on going.

A leader did not slump. A leader was in control. Even when he least felt like he controlled anything. Especially then.

More often than not, when something looks like it's the absolute end, it is really the beginning.

I was a James Brown junkie as a kid.

I question what emotion Manilow touches. People are entertained by him. But are they emotionally moved? I don't believe anything that Barry Manilow sings.

Some guys smoke. Some guys drink. Some guys chase women. I'm a big barbecue-sauce guy.

If your husband has difficulty getting to sleep, the words 'we need to talk about our relationship' may help.