America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security.

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts.

Workaholics typically have a lot of achievement with very little appreciation of what they have, whether it's cars or friendships or otherwise. That is a shallow victory. Then you have people with a lot of appreciation and no achievement, which is fine, but it doesn't create a lot of good in the world.

My books have occasionally been of mixed success. It's not like I have gone from triumph to triumph. I have had a couple of books do very, very well and a couple do very, very badly.

Some people might be groomed for success; I've just always thought I've got a hell of a lot of things to learn and places to go. Creatively, I couldn't stay on the same treadmill. I chose to be off-centre and do collaborative work.

You realize that you can't win 'em all. You try to win 'em all; you get frustrated, but you gotta have a short fuse either way. Success in the NFL is just as deadly as allowing yourself to kinda wallow in sorrow. It works both ways.