John Gregory Dunne

“Anecdotes are factoids of questionable provenance, burnished to a high gloss, often set in gilded venues and populated with familiar names as background atmosphere, purged of ambiguity in the interest of keeping the narrative flowing smoothly.”

“Retirement is purgatory for the former sports star. The world outside organized sports is unforgiving.”

“I am willing to believe, but I do not have the gift of faith. I'm skeptical.”

“I call myself a harp because I like the sound of the word - it is short, sharp, and abusive.”

“A writer is an eternal outsider, his nose pressed against whatever window on the other side of which he sees his material.”

“Being a professional screenwriter is perhaps the hardest occupation. Because nothing is ever yours and, by the nature of the medium, you are never ultimately responsible for your work. It can be interesting - if you have another outlet.”

“Class was always the domestic issue during the Vietnam War, not communism.”

“I love cops; I'm fascinated by the criminal justice system.”

“Only World War II, which mobilized 10 million draftees, could by any stretch of the imagination be called a people's war.”

“For interns at 'The Weekly Standard' or 'National Review,' where the martial instinct finds its most insistent voice, what Robert Kagan calls the military 'career path' is not widely seen as a plausible future. Pulling a trigger is what Jose, Tyrone, and Bubba do, not early admission students at the better private universities.”

“I'm not a bad mimic, and I can pick up speech cadences that I would not pick up if I didn't hit the road.”

“What is astonishing about the social history of the Vietnam war is not how many people avoided it, but how many could not and did not.”

“The myth of the Kennedys - and the hold - was always the hold of the renegade rich, out there on the frontier beyond accountability.”

“The self-image of many contemporary sportswriters seems to depend on maintaining that were it not for sports, athletes would be pumping gas, if they were not sticking up the gas station.”

“'Time' was a glorious place to work in the years that I was there, from 1959 to 1964.”

“There are no new facts about the Kennedys, only new attitudes, a literature that, like the automobile industry, puts new bodies on old chassis.”

“Writing well about sports is as difficult as writing well about sex.”

“Life is much more available in New York - there are a dozen movie theaters within walking distance. Living in California is easier, but you get sedentary.”

“All life is inherently dangerous. But beyond that, Los Angeles is just a wonderful place to be.”

“Reviews don't bother me.”