Our father never had to yell at us much when we were growing up. No one ever wanted to let Dad down.

What Dad's taught me is that life doesn't end when you get to be in your 70s and your 80s, and he has a philosophy of life that just - 'What more can I do? How can I help?'

Doing what you thought was right for the country, rather than what was politically expedient, seems almost as quaint now as having civil disagreements with those whose viewpoints differ from your own.

My grandfather Prescott passed down the idea that you would only run for office after you had built a financial base - then it was time to give back and go into public service.

After one Olympics, if we invest in sports and say we will get a gold medal in the next Olympic, it doesn't work like that in sports. How it works is that you provide the infrastructure, provide education about nutrition and health.

I've been in elementary education for years and my belief is that Christmas pageants in schools are little more than conditioning kids for the Christian religion.

My dad didn't have a formal education, but he had a wonderful vocabulary. So in 'Harvest,' I wanted my main character to be an innately intelligent man who would have the vocabulary to say whatever he wanted in the same way as lots of working-class people can.

A music teacher. It was in the inner city at a school called Horace Mann. I think I was most effective when the kids pissed me off.