If there's anything Trollope novels always take seriously, it is money - how it flows from one character to another, how it is managed, who has it, who deserves it, and what it means to a character, male or female.

One of the profound effects of economics in our day is that the people with the money and the power have embraced the guilt-free, external-less, everything-will-turn-out-okay-in-the-end philosophy of economics in order to justify their own evil works. And the economists, for the most part, have sucked up to that money.

I have reared, or helped to rear, five children and the scariest bit, bar none, is the learning-to-drive part. It has filled me with anxiety not only about the children, but also about my former self and my friends.

Another thing I learned is that novels, even those from apparently distant times and places, remain current and enlightening, and also comforting.

I would love to work with Pendleton Ward who created 'Adventure Time,' and I'm dying to work with Ryan Murphy. I'm obsessed with 'American Horror Story' and everything he does.

The passion of hatred is so long lived and so obstinate a malady that the surest sign of death in a sick person is their desire for reconciliation.

The choices Israelis face and the decisions they make, day in and day out, are literally the difference between life and death. In many ways, I liken their reactions to the way I felt while serving in Iraq.

The most feared thing should be death, but after a lot of rumination, I have settled to fear incessant pain. It is not a 'screaming hysterically' kind of fear but a silently lurking one.