You Know What You Are?

You Can Laugh At Somebody Because They Are Innocent, And Because They Are Naive Or They Are About To Walk Into A Wall, But If Somebody's Giving You Stuff, If Somebody's Talking, Giving You Their Take On Things, What Makes You Laugh, Generally Speaking, Is Going To Be Somebody Who Is Telling It In An Angry Way.

A Lot Of The Fiction I Read Growing Up Was Post-war American, And Not All Of It Centers On Manhattan, But Around People Of The Mad Men Generation, People Like John Cheever And, In More Modern Times, Don Delillo, Who I Always Mention.

I Never Really Had A Career, To Be Honest With You. I Never In My Life Sat Down And Planned It. I Have Thought, 'oh, I'd Like To Do This,' Like Anybody Would. But I'm Not The Type That Says, 'if I Do This, It Will Lead To That.'

The American Political Machinery Is Awesome To Behold In Its Scale And Expense And Waste And Madness. It's The Greatest Circus On Earth I Suppose.

The Measure Of A Conversation Is How Much Mutual Recognition There Is In It; How Much Shared There Is In It. If You're Talking About What's In Your Own Head, Or Without Thought To What People Looking And Listening Will Feel, You Might As Well Be In A Room Talking To Yourself.