“Sevgi Ertekin is representative of the potential of America, and there's a speech where she says, ‘I cannot believe we pissed this all away. ... We surrendered to the idiot dregs of our own society.’ For me, that's the mission statement of that that element of the book. It's a lament.”

"I don't see this... as a Republican thing or a Democratic thing. It's just the way we live today. Drunken sailors from the Capitol to the freeways. Heirs living on their inheritance and spending it fast. ... It is later than anyone dares to think."

"Even then -- before reality television and web cams and even cameras -- it was a national characteristic, and you had to cease to be American to be great, or authentic."