He ordered killings as easily as he ordered linguine.

He ordered killings as easily as he ordered linguine.

Once I decide to do something, I can't have people telling me I can't. If there's a roadblock, you jump over it, walk around it, crawl under it.

A hero is someone we can admire without apology.

Both Kennedy and Obama exuded a dash of glamour in their roles as commander-in-chief and became the darlings of Hollywood. As president, each brought to the White House a fashionable and accomplished First Lady, two adorable young children and scene-stealing pets.

Gay marriage has jumped out of the closet on to the front page. Everyone from the president of the U.S. to retired four-star general Colin Powell is embracing the issue, now supported by most Americans. Still, a few people, like former First Lady Laura Bush appear to be conflicted.

I admired Eugene McCarthy's courage and although I left his Senate staff after four years to accept a job as the researcher on the editorial page of the 'Washington Post,' I remained an admirer.

I am what is known as a benched Catholic and disillusioned by the church doctrine. I believe in things the Catholic Church does not believe in: divorce being one, and a women's right to choose being another.

I can't say I wasn't warned. Alarms started clanging the day I signed to write 'His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra' (Bantam Books, 1986).

I don't give you editorial control. I want to meet you. I want to interview everybody who's ever known you. I want to see your correspondence. I want to see your bank statements. But you will have no control over what I write. That's why I really believe in the unauthorized biography.

I tend to place my own value in spirituality rather than religiosity.

I would love to do an unauthorized biography about Congress... It's like a secret society up there.

I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed that Katharine Carr Esters claims that she was 'tricked' into divulging her true feelings about Oprah and that she now denies that she revealed to me the identity of Oprah's biological father.

John F. Kennedy brought style and charisma to the White House and a first family that captivated the country: a handsome, witty president, an elegant first lady, and two adorable young children.

Kennedy was haunted by the Bay of Pigs invasion but carried the country through the Cuban Missile Crisis. He later increased the number of U.S. military advisers to South Vietnam to more than 16,000.

Most historians agree that Abraham Lincoln was the most important man to ever occupy the White House because he abolished slavery and kept the states united through a bloody civil war.

My biography of Frank Sinatra is not paean to his music but rather an illumination of the man behind the music, who once described himself as 'an 18-karat manic-depressive who lived a life of violent emotional contradictions with an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as happiness.'

Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to ensure fair pay for women in the workplace. In addition, he succeeded in getting a measure passed to end discrimination against gays in the military.

People forget that unauthorized does not mean untrue and authorized does not mean authentic.

Presidents often disappoint, but first ladies rarely do.

Shortly after Senator Eugene J. McCarthy died in 2005 the age of 89, I became an honorary member of the committee starting a fellowship in McCarthy's name at his alma mater, Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota.

The authorized biographers - the ones hand-picked to write the sanitized version of a subject's life - sit up front with the swells while the unauthorized biographer who writes without access or approval gets elbowed to the back of the bus.

The difference between authorized and unauthorized biographies is the difference between riding in carriage or squatting in steerage.

The rumors of Frank Sinatra's violence and his ties to organized crime were such that journalists joked in print about me ending up in concrete boots and sleeping with the fishes if I proceeded to write his biography.

There's still time for redemption if I live long enough, don't you think?

When Caroline Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 as her father's rightful heir, she laid upon him the mantle of Camelot and the enduring mystique of John F. Kennedy, who, according to polls, continues to be America's most beloved president.

While many applauded Oprah for opening her heart to young girls in South Africa, some criticized her for not investing in the youth of America.

I'm not jealous, and I'm not possessive, and I'm not controlling.

There is a long history of how DNA sequencing can bring certainty to people's lives.

I really hate the duties of being a celebrity, like getting dressed up for the red carpet.

With Saturday morning cartoons, you've got to start at 6 A.M., right?

There's a method to the madness in filmmaking, where everything's very specifically laid out, the shots and what they need - but there also can be a freedom to allowing the actors to find genuine moments.

I was sand, I was snow, written on, rewritten, smoothed over.

Letting go is one way of saying I love you.

I'm a quiet person's nightmare - the only time I shut up is when I'm reading, because I'm a book geek.

I'd like to have the first restaurant that can deliver incredible quality food to your table at your house at any time-right where you live.

Sweet as sweetest Grecian honey will my song be when I sing, O Beloved, in the season of the Spring!

'Saturday Night Live' is a show that I think I could have a lot of fun on, just being different characters and maybe singing, too.

I preferred the weapons of dialectic to all the other teachings of philosophy, and armed with these, I chose the conflicts of disputation rather than the trophies of war.

God is so unique in giving His people ways to fellowship, witness, and remember what a mighty and merciful God He is.

I was such a dork. I was too big. I was really gangly.

I loved to read, and if I could've been a professional reader, that's probably what I would've wanted to be!

But still as compared to many, many orchestras in the world, I think you find a lot more new music and living composers on our programs than many other places.

David Fincher is one of the best directors I know, so I'm really curious to see it. Really curious, and I want to hear Daniel have the Swedish accent.

The Republican and Democratic parties have accomplished an amazing feat with the red state/blue state paradigm. They've convinced everyone that regardless of how bad they are, the other guy is worse.

Coffee makes us severe and grave and philosophical.

There a great ethnic cuisine available to you in Chicago.

When I was growing up, I lived in a neighborhood that was largely Latino and I thought I was Latino!

I'm probably not long-term-relationship material for now.