Mount Vernon has always been very supportive of the program.

Even without specific numbers in front of me, we have to be spending more money because it costs more at the pump. One of the things we talked about is the money we saved from the mild winter being absorbed by gas prices.

It happened that at the late age of twenty-seven I had run away from home. High time, you might say; but rebels can't always be choosers.

The kids today have these fresh faces. It's like they're on pins and needles, waiting to see what I'm going to do. They've never seen me. In the 1960s, those were hippies. They were wired up already. The kids today know me because I've worked with Jeff Tweedy and other young producers.

[My father] had spent his own short time like a priest in charge of a relic, forever expecting the blessed blood to liquefy.

I began to ration my writing, for fear I would dream through life as my father had done. I was afraid I had inherited a poisoned gene from him, a vocation without a gift.