I deliberately did not read anything about the Vietnam War because I felt the politics of the war eclipsed what happened to the veterans. The politics were irrelevant to what this memorial was.

Journalism wishes to tell what it is that has happened everywhere as though the same things had happened for every man. Poetry wishes to say what it is like for any man to be himself in the presence of a particular occurrence as though only he were alone there.

The fans know what's happened to me over the past couple of years. I lost my family. I pretty much got devastated financially and the fans know that I've had some hard times - and that's the nature of loyal fans. They want to see the people that they love and believe in get back on their feet.

The sun the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago... had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands.

I've seen country music go uptown like we say and I'm proud I was there when it happened.

I don't think Hollywood was trying to do anything with me. In fact they lost interest pretty quick. I think I got lucky briefly in the '90s and it just so happened that those movies were the opportunities that came my way. Then it just kind of stopped.

The first two movies I directed failed when I was 21 and 23 and that was the greatest thing that could have happened.

I don't know what has happened to movies but lately every movie is at least 20 minutes too long. It used to be that if you were three hours long it was because it was epic - a movie about Gandhi something with very important subject matters.

I realized this is what God has dealt me and I should be thankful considering all that's happened to me in my life but MS caused the movies to stop - stop dead - and I miss it.

I have been wounded like this since about half past eight this morning and I will tell you how it happened.

In Rio Bravo when Duke makes love to Feathers the scene dissolves to the next morning where we see him putting on his vest and almost humming. It was subtle but you knew what happened. Give me a towel and some blankets any day!

What I had said in the morning was that this is what we know has happened but there has been no significant off-site release. Only to find out moments later that in fact there had been an off-site release. I still haven't gotten over that.

Now I know that that is just the phenomena of eating this way. Most all of my letters say I hit a plateau and then one morning I woke up and the melt had happened.

The result was that if it happened to clear off after a cloudy evening I frequently arose from my bed at any hour of the night or morning and walked two miles to the observatory to make some observation included in the programme.

The worst part about pregnancy would definitely have to be my nausea. I don't know why it's just called morning sickness because morning sickness never just happened in the morning for me and it's not happening just in the morning for my sister.

What is news? It's hard to quantify. Certainly news has changed completely and the morning shows are not really designed to bring you the news except to tell you what happened overnight and the rest of it is a kind of magazine mentality - a little bit of this a little bit of that. It's harder to be an educated and informed citizen.

I'll never forget one morning I walked in and I had a hell of a bruise - it had been a difficult night the night before - and a client said to me 'Good God Vidal what happened to your face?' And I said 'Oh nothing madam I just fell over a hairpin.'

My heart is singing for joy this morning! A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil's mind and behold all things are changed!

In the seventies a group of American artists seized the means not of production but of reproduction. They tore apart visual culture at a time of no money no market and no one paying attention except other artists. Vietnam and Watergate had happened everything in America was being questioned.

You know my main reaction to this money thing is that it's humorous all the attention to it because it's hardly the most insightful or valuable thing that's happened to me.

It was an honor and privilege to arrive to this country 16 years ago with almost no money in my pocket. A lot has happened since then.

My mom died of cancer when I was really young. I'm not someone who tries to work out their own stuff with a role but I think that happened despite my best efforts to keep myself separate from it.

You know I don't think any mother aims to be a single mom. I didn't wish for that but it happened.

When I was 5 some financial things happened and I moved seven times in a year. We moved from apartment to apartment sometimes living with friends. My mom would always say 'Don't get comfortable because we may not be here long.'