Americans born since World War II have grown up in a media-saturated environment. From childhood, we have developed a sort of advertising literacy, which combines appreciation for technique with skepticism about motives. We respond to ads with at least as much rhetorical intelligence as we apply to any other form of persuasion.

Scientists appear most often in horror movies. Through childlike curiosity or God-defying hubris, they unleash destructive forces they can't control - 'Forbidden Planet's Monsters of the Id.

Wars without military objectives have a tendency to go on forever.

Medicare is a monopoly: a central-planning bureaucracy grafted onto American health care. It exercises a stranglehold on the health care of all Americans over 65, and on the medical practices of almost all physicians. Medicare decides what is legitimate and what is not: which prices may be charged and which services may be rendered.

I was looking forward to knowing Shah Rukh and get to know how he works, what is his process like and how he is as a person. There are millions like me who dream about working with him some day. His film 'Baazigar' really inspired me.

Since the Rio Olympics, the expectations are always high, and the responsibilities are also high. I am used to it now. You have to keep going and keep working hard.

I don't wait for inspiration. I get up and write every day.

That's the thing about dreams - they're ineffable. If you can get to the bottom of it, it's not a dream.