My dad's one true quest in life was for the Platonic ideal of peanut butter. And I remember one day he announced, with a look of utter transfiguration on his face, that he had found paradise on Earth in a jar with a yellow cap. And it was called Red Wing.

I love Oscar Wilde, still the wittiest writer of anyone, dead or living.

A new idea is like carbonated liquid in a bottle. You just sort of shake it until the cork pops, then you write and write.

I'm a Republican, but I find Nancy Pelosi very attractive.

We live - on a spinning planet in a world of spin.

As you know, divorce is still not allowed in the Catholic Church. But here insert a large 'however' - she is liberal in the granting of annulments.

In public relations, you live with the reality that not every disaster can be made to look like a misunderstood triumph.

It's odd to think of yourself as an orphan at 55.

The ideological distance between Jim Webb and Bertrand Russell can be measured in light years. An author who reaches both of them exerts something like universal appeal.