“[Professor] Frank recalled my idle remark some years ago: 'Never pass up the opportunity to have sex or appear on television.' Advice I would never give today in the age of AIDS and its television equivalent Fox News.”

“As the age of television progresses the Reagans will be the rule, not the exception. To be perfect for television is all a President has to be these days. ”

“Never have children, only grandchildren.”

“The most interesting thing about writing is the way that it obliterates time. Three hours seem like three minutes. Then there is the business of surprise. I never know what is coming next. The phrase that sounds in the head changes when it appears on the page. Then I start probing it with a pen, finding new meanings. Sometimes I burst out laughing at what is happening as I twist and turn sentences. Strange business, all in all. One never gets to the end of it. That’s why I go on, I suppose. To see what the next sentences I write will be.”

“Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.”

“As I looked back over my life, I realized that I enjoyed nothing--not art, not sex--more than going to the movies. ”

“Of course his dust would be absorbed in other living things and to that degree at least he would exist again, though it was plain enough that the specific combination which was he would never exist again.”