I Loved Gore Vidal's Burr. That Book

But An Experienced Reader Is Also A Self-aware And Critical Reader. I Can't Remember Ever Reading A Story Without Judging It.

One Of The Ideals [margaret Thatcher] Grew Up With Was Self-denial And Postponement Of Gratification, And Yet She Went About To Create A Greedy, Short-term Society. It Is A Paradox.

It Was A Very Funny Conference. I Knew [christopher Hitchens] Before That. He Had Always Been A Good Angel To Me. He Once Stole A Phrase From Me That Came Out Of His Mouth On Television. I Saw His Eyes Move Sideways. I Thought, It's Alright, You Can Have It! The Conference Was Light On Women. Salman Rushdie Showed Up, They Were Doing Their Own Thing. I Didn't Feel Neglected!

My Concern Is Less The Monarchy As Such Than The Attempt Of A Fading Colonial Power To Hang Onto Grandeur.

For Me, It Is About Using Everything That Is There And Using The Gaps In The Record, Figuring Out Why The Gaps Might Be There. And Then When You Move On To The Level Of What Historians Said, Laying The Interpretations Side By Side. You Also Have To Look Back At The Documents And Make Your Own Judgments. What The Record Says And What People Say About It. A Novelist Can Fill The Gaps In A Way That A Biographer Cannot.