Quotes About Author

Writing - not being a writer with interesting habits - gets priority.

As a physician specializing in nutrition, my priority is to the health of the public.

I have such an extraordinary platform where I am able to help people. To me, that's the number one priority.

National security needs to be priority number one and if you're willing to play politics with our national security then you have no business serving in the Senate or the House.

How does a nice Catholic girl end up going to prison for a year? It's crazy. I've made mistakes. I have to pay for those mistakes.

With Animal Factory you'd think that because it's mostly interiors, you could shoot it anywhere. So we shot this in Philadelphia, and we had the cooperation of the prison system.

'Fast Food Nation' isn't about my journey into the dark world of fast food and the prison book is not about my journey into the prison world. I'm not using myself as any kind of narrative link.

I have much to say about the pain I've felt and seen inside of prison. It has been an eye-opening and harrowing experience.

Chopper Read attended a writing school I gave for inmates at Risdon Prison in Hobart many years ago. Even if I hadn't known about his hacked-off ears and his criminal history, I'd have found him powerful and compelling.

Look at the opening sequence of 'The Blues Brothers,' which starts at the prison. The way it was filmed, it does not look like a comedy. I thought that was great.

I don't know what goes on in prison. I've never been in trouble with the police in my life.

I come from a place where to go to prison is like a rite of passage. It's something that you gain respect for. I used to watch people come out of prison, older cousins and the like, back in the day, and be in awe of them.

The curiosity to see the prisoners appears to be unabated.

There was a time that human rights was not even an issue in this country. Then prisoners' rights became an issue.

My earliest memories are going into prisons. Going through metal detectors, getting searched by guards.

Dutch prisons are probably the most civilized you're going to find anywhere in the world.

I don't think women's prisons are environments for dance routines, and I don't think mass murder is humorous.

'Lockup,' inside America's supersize prisons on MSNBC, is one of my favorite shows. I get a lot of my inspiration for Blair Waldorf from that show.

There is no world of absolute, complete privacy or a world of complete national security.

I don't always want my opinion known. What little privacy I have left I'd like to maintain.

Conservatives have deep distrust of government power, so I not only understand their privacy concerns, I share them.

There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy, especially in Presidents. Those are prayer and fishing.

I do mind some of the intrusions on privacy.

Privacy has become the most precious thing. Things have got more cryptic in my writing.