When we're discussing who to invite to a dinner party, my wife Chaz and I sometimes use the shorthand, 'good value for money,' which indicates guests expected to be entertaining.

My dream dinner party guests would be Ethel Kennedy, Truman Capote and Hunter S. Thompson.

I always like to think I'm having a dinner party, and I'm the host, and the audience are my guests.

It was a pity she couldn't do justice to the meal, which featured Scottish salmon, steaming roast joints, venison haunch accompanied by sausages and sweetbreads, and elaborate vegetable casseroles dressed with cream and butter and truffles. For dessert there were platters of luxury fruits; raspberries, nectarines, cherries, peaches and pineapples, as well as a surfeit of cakes, tarts, and syllabubs.

The cocktail party is a device for paying off obligations to people you don't want to invite for dinner.

The formal Washington dinner party has all the spontaneity of a Japanese imperial funeral.