I was terrified of growing up to become the anti-me, maturing into a woman whom I would not recognise and who wouldn't recognise her younger self.

In the big picture, few of our careers live up to the dreams we nursed when we were young. In fact, one underside of success is that it's nearly always penultimate, and so every accomplishment merely raises the bar.

When Truman Capote wrote from the perspective of condemned murderers from a lower economic class than his own, he had some gall. But writing fiction takes gall.

In Shaker Heights, Ohio, one of America's first planned communities, order and harmony are prized.

The next president of the United States will be the president that will celebrate 100 years of women having the right to vote. I mean, I think having a woman president lead that celebration would be, you know, one of these instances of history really working out right in a poetic and beautiful way.

No doubt the ridiculous politicians are right to like politics. They have found careers in which success can be achieved by being ridiculous. Imagine Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush rising to the top of any other profession.

Indiscriminate firing by police on people is absolute barbarism. Instead of solving their problems, the government is trying to suppress the people by force.

I created jobs. Russ Feingold, during that same approximate 30 years, what did he do? He built government. He built it larger and more intrusive.