a writer must always tell the truth (unless he's a journalist)

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.

there is something beyond materialism that's called humanity and relation.

Let us be the waves of love and let it wash the universe.

Truth will flourish in fantasy, only to wither and die in what you are pleased to call reality.

All quiet along the Potomac tonight, no sound save the rush of the river, while soft falls the dew on the face of the dead, the picket's off duty forever.

Christians can trust God to redeem even the greatest of tragedies and the most desperate of situations.

When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves he isn't a man of action.

We don't need someone who can think. We need someone with enough digits to hold a pen.

I think it's very good to have regrets, to learn how to live with them.

You're trying to dramatize events to tell a story most effectively. That doesn't mean the events aren't true, it just means you're making them as dramatic as you possibly can.

You can't make the people do what you want them to do. You've got to get everybody to see what you seein' or you gonna be a damn fool.