The superhighway of celebrity and showmanship is filled with debris.

For years he was sort of written off as a mere celebrity portraitist, and I think that was encouraged by his own commentary, which included a lot of inflammatory, incredibly banal statements in which a certain kind of persona is being created and played with. He might really have felt that way, but I don't think he can control how we read the paintings now.

Reagan never cottoned to dictators. He was pure in this notion in a true belief that democracy was the best solution in the world because it spoke to people's hopes and dreams and aspirations, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.

We can only imagine the history of the free world today if, at the end of the Civil War, there had been two countries: the United States and the Confederate States of America.

As a composer, Dylan now fits comfortably alongside George Gershwin or Irving Berlin, though he grumpily refuses to wear any man's collar.

One thing 'not right' on the 50th anniversary of the Selma marches is the sad fact that the Edmund Pettus Bridge hasn't been renamed the John Lewis Bridge.