I know that books I have written will still resonate in 50 years - particularly 'My Sister's Keeper.' It has sold three million copies in the States alone. I strongly feel that as a novelist you have a platform and the ability to change people's minds.

The question is what will Mitt Romney do as president if his policy is simply to be hands off and let the government be made so small it can be drowned in a bathtub. In the 21st century global economy no state alone has the ability to compete against China.

I'd like to state that Spike Lee is not saying that African American culture is just for black people alone to enjoy and cherish. Culture is for everybody.

If the First Amendment means anything it means that a state has no business telling a man sitting alone in his house what books he may read or what films he may watch.

As strong as the United States is we can't deal with terrorism alone.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men necessarily must avoid the state of being alone.

Had the United States and the United Kingdom gone on alone to capture Baghdad under the provisions of the Geneva and Hague conventions we would have been considered occupying powers and therefore would have been responsible for all the costs of maintaining or restoring government education and other services for the people of Iraq.

Too small is our world to allow discrimination bigotry and intolerance to thrive in any corner of it let alone in the United States of America.

Men of my age live in a state of continual desperation.

To own the dominant or only newspaper in a mid-sized American city was for many decades a kind of license to print money. In the Internet age however no one has figured out how to rescue the newspaper in the United States or abroad.

Here's a proposal offered only partly in jest: no resident of the United States whether born here or abroad should get to be a citizen until age 18 at which time each such resident has to take a test.

I hope to have one more boxing match at the age of 55. Given that demographic at the age of 55 to 65 you've got to make a statement with your life. Otherwise you are just existing.

The Border Ballads for instance and the Robin Hood Ballads clearly suppose a state of society which is nothing but a very circumscribed and not very important heroic age.

The reality is sobering: in the United States one in three girls will become pregnant before age 20 totaling more than 750 000 girls per year.

There's no way to approach anything in an objective way. We're completely subjective our view of the world is completely controlled by who we are as human beings as men or women by our age our history our profession by the state of the world.

It is not classified as a pagan religion. The so-called New Age activities and this are not called religions and therefore don't come under the prohibition of mingling church and state that we have in this country.

I really think we should pass a law in every state I don't care whether it takes the independence away from an old person or not. You shouldn't be driving a car if you're over the age of 80. Maybe even less than that.