In my experience, growing up in Brooklyn and all that, the real tough guys didn't act tough. They didn't talk tough. They were tough, you know? I think about these politicians who try to pose as tough guys - it makes me laugh.

I was born in 1935. But my mother and father - who were immigrants from Ireland - and everybody that I knew growing up in Brooklyn came out of the Depression, and they were remarkable people.

Too many people take New York for granted. The primary reason is that history is not taught. That's outrageous in a city where the past is still visible.

I don't think enough journalists read enough - literature, history. You've got to keep reading all through your career.

The application of military force, or the prospect of such application, inhibits terrorist violence.

I feel like every artist has a place in their mind, this place where they exist artistically. And I just want to take people to mine, and my place is called Loveland. In Loveland, there's no war, and there's peace.

I cannot grasp the difference between killing people with drones or rifles and knives. The objective in war is to kill the enemy before he kills you. I can't fathom the almost religious zeal with which the use of drones is being opposed.

The links between the British and the Dutch royal families are strong - Queen Beatrix's grandmother, Queen Wilhelmina, was evacuated to Britain during the Second World War. But that doesn't mean they share the same attitudes.