"I don't think it's possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor."

"People until I was 60 would always say they thought I looked younger, which I think, without flattering myself, I did, but I think I certainly have, as George Orwell says people do after a certain age, the face they deserve."

"'WASP' is the only ethnic term that is in fact a term of class, apart from redneck, which is another word for the same group but who are in the lower social strata, so it's inexplicably tied up with social standing and culture and history in a way that the other hyphenations just are not."

"It's impossible, I think, however much I'd become disillusioned politically or evolve into a post-political person, I don't think I'd ever change my view that socialism is the best political moment humans have ever come up with."

"For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel."

"To build a legacy, one must accept that every step forward is a victory over stagnation."

"You come home, and you party. But after that, you get a hangover. Everything about that is negative."

"One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don't come home at night."