You've got to guard against speaking more clearly than you think.

What did the president know, and when did he know it?

It is almost always the cover-up rather than the event that causes trouble.

The most difficult thing in any negotiation, almost, is making sure that you strip it of the emotion and deal with the facts.

In Washington I'm thought of as a conservative, but in Tennessee I'm thought of as a Bolshevik.

Demography is changing us as we are older societies, we're living longer. How the generations balance each other out, how that affects education and health care.

If you don't like the question that's asked, answer some other question.

Eventually, somebody is going to be a hero, and somebody's going to be president. Not necessarily the same person.

The beginning of the decline of the Republic was the day they air-conditioned the Capitol.

Listen more often than you speak.

Every wound is a word.

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

You can only take steps toward the future you want. It's not guaranteed to be there.

If love is the greatest gift of all-and I believe it is- then the greatest privilege of all is to be able to love someone.

Writing, is not a race. Is to distill the soul letter by letter in a slow and delicate process that will take years.

Novels are usually built on conflict, sometimes very, very difficult conflict. It's why men write war novels - because there you go, there's the conflict writ large.

Earnest is our dog. She senses instantly that something is wrong, and guided by that timeless and unerring nurturing instinct that all female dogs have, she tries to lick my ears off.

So I wasn't lying, exactly. I was just choosing among truths.

Horror films are very functional like comedies. The main thing with a comedy, the big question is "is it funny?" And with horror the question is "is it scary?"

Beware of bad Catholics.