I'm handed a bunch of existing data. My job is to put that in the best narrative form. That is a puzzle I love to solve.

No one grows up thinking they want to be a ghostwriter. No one plans on that job.

I'm so used to being separate from the publication process. I turn in the book to the editor and then I'm done.

I think that the celebrity memoir as a genre is looked upon as a lesser form. One of my missions as a ghostwriter has been to elevate that form. Maybe that sounds pretentious!

I think one of the big things that's come out of ghostwriting for me is real compassion for the complexity of fame.

We exploit celebrities by caring about shallow things like whether they've gotten a facelift. And we violate their children constantly. But we also love them in a way.

Lizzie Pepper is pure fiction! The character is pulled from tabloids. But I think we all look at celebrity marriages and invest in them.

I think people dismiss celebrity memoirs as unreal, contrived and maybe partially made up. But that's definitely not true for anything that I write.

None of my clients are criminals, but to a much lighter degree that's what goes on. I hear the story, and I hear it with the level of detail that breeds empathy.

Working with somebody who has a more interesting life than I do - and getting to take on that life temporarily - is an endlessly interesting way to have the experience of writing memoir.

I've been writing books without ego for a very long time. I feel like it will get what it deserves. Or won't get what it doesn't deserve.

Simply put, self-centered and egocentric people don'tinspire others. We are inspired by people who placeothers-- other people, other ideas, other goals-- abovethemselves.

I'm not asking you to do your best. I'm asking you to do your job." -Dagny Taggart

It's one giant Bowflex commercial covered in booze vomit.

I think the Swedish Academy wished to manifest its solidarity with the living spirit of Greece today.

And what excites me most is the type of public, the fact that the Parisian people have a broader cultural understanding than many Americans do.

Poverty can lead to tyranny. Capitolism creates freedom. If the poor had a better image of the rich they could be just like them.

I'm not a policy and a strategy guy. I'm - you know, the military basically supports what the president wants, the decisions that he makes.

The problem in this world is to avoid concentration of power - we must have a dispersion of power.

I'm from where your hustle determines your salary.