On her Emmy nomination:
“I was nominated for an Emmy for best writing for the first network special on 9-11. It was called, ‘America, A Tribute to Heroes.’ I was called by CBS and asked to volunteer my time and of course I said, ‘absolutely.’ I wound up scripting what Tom Cruise said, and Julia Roberts. I was really grateful CBS asked me to take part. Later, at the Emmys in Los Angeles, I saw one of the other writers—[Rep.] Barney Franks’ sister Ann, who worked for Clinton in the White House. It was so nice to see her and know we’d worked together—a bipartisan moment in a painful time.”
On Margaret Thatcher calling the former Soviet Union the “evil empire” in front of Gorbachev during Reagan’s funeral:
“She didn’t bother writing around his presence. She was just going to tell the truth and talk about Reagan’s importance to history, period. If Gorbachev was in the audience, great. If Gorbachev was not in the audience, great. She was not going to not tell the truth, which was a perfect metaphor for her—and Reagan’s approach to Gorbachev. But I’m sure Gorbachev understood…. [He] lives in California. Just read that the other day.”
On Washington:
“Every time I go down to Washington it’s a changed city. It’s actually different from the more sleepy little town I knew in 1984. It is so much more sophisticated and cosmopolitan. The women dress so much better— to my disappointment. One of the things that made Washington so distinctive was that it was refreshingly dowdy. It was like seeing the sort of women who dress up in [church] in England. That’s how Washington women looked. I just loved that lovely dowdiness. Now they’re chic and hip and rock.”
Future projects:
“I hope someday to do a small book on Robert Bolt, to my mind a great man, the screenwriter of Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago and A Man for all Seasons. He did work that I consider to have been heroic in its size and integrity.”