It was a long time in the making my divorce. One day became less special than the next and pretty soon we ceased all conversation. It is a sad day when you have nothing left to say.

Before I became a suspense novelist I wrote romantic suspense as Alicia Scott.

Having two daughters changed my perspective on a lot of things and I definitely have a newfound respect for women. And I think I finally became a good and real man when I had a daughter.

I didn't want to be a writer but I became one. And now I have many readers in many countries. I think that's a miracle. So I think I have to be humble regarding this ability. I'm proud of it and I enjoy it and it is strange to say it this way but I respect it.

I am utterly struck how 300 years after his execution Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Zionism was originally a rebellion against religious Judaism and the PLO Charter was essentially secularist. But because the conflict was allowed to fester without a resolution religion got sucked into the escalating cycle of violence and became part of the problem.

Religion is the organization of spirituality into something that became the hand maiden of conquerors. Nearly all religions were brought to people and imposed on people by conquerors and used as the framework to control their minds.

The Son of God became man so that we might become God.

Sidney Poitier became a star in part by helping black and white Americans negotiate their new relationship in the post-Civil Rights era.

In my relationship I was giving myself away to make the relationship better but in actuality wasn't doing better by doing that. I became less of a man.

Bill Clinton sitting on Air Force One getting his hair cut while people around the country cooled their heels and waited for him became a metaphor for a populist president who had gotten drunk with the perks of his own power and was sort of you know not sensitive to what people wanted.

After I became a citizen I felt freer to say what I thought about this country both negative and positive. I think I had been consciously and subconsciously biting my tongue in the past.

As I became very defined in my personal politics I turned down some films that I slightly regret now I'm not going to say what they were.

I became active in politics because I saw the possibility if we all sat back and did nothing of a world in which there would no longer be any stages for actors to act on.

I was in the Commons recently and saw a young lady wearing a nice pair of shoes. I said I liked them and she said my shoes were the reason she became involved in politics.

These days politics religion media seem to get all mixed up. Television became the new religion a long time back and the media has taken over.

When I became leader I made very clear I was not going to choose the easy life. I have always taken risks. I don't like comfort-zone politics.

The irony is going to work every day became the subject of probably my best poetry.

Political satire became obsolete when they awarded Henry Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize.

But presidential approval also became a surrogate measure of national unity and patriotism.

As a young boy I read 'Cheaper by the Dozen' and immediately became neurotic about my use of time. It taxed me severely but only for the next 50 years. But I think it also allowed me to discipline myself to sit in the chair and be a writer where one of the most needed qualities is patience.

That's why I never became a director. I never had patience with people.

Music became a healer for me.

I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff I love classical music and I needed a time-out.

I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow.

By going to the movies and because of other things too going to college making a wide variety of friends moving around traveling I became a lot more open-minded than the heritage I was born into might have suggested.

Bill Bennett really became an idol for me. I listened to him every morning from 6 to 9 for oh years.

I think it's good that I had some experience of the real world before I became successful. You know having to get up in the morning and going to work in construction.

'Good Morning America' exploited Joan Lunden's pregnancy but you won't see me bringing my babies on the air. The only reason I'm talking about the babies at all is that they've been with me on the show since I became pregnant. After a while I had to acknowledge this pumpkin tummy.

Early in the morning I fell in love with the girl that later on became my wife. At that time we were so naive. I wanted to charm her so I read her Capital by Marx. I thought somehow she would be convinced by the strength of his criticism about capital.