"Being as rich as my father had made me allowed me to nourish a small talent for irony, irony being the vehicle by which the essentially second rate arrive at some kind of superiority."

"Outside of mystery novels, criminal defendants are rarely propertied: they tend to live on the frayed margins of society, and often do not speak the language of the courts where their cases are heard." 

…

"The Kennedys shared only one attitude with the traditional American rich: they assumed that the possession of great wealth constituted a real if unacknowledged—this is a republic, after all—nobility."

…

"As fact, it might be suspect, but as truth it is as close as I can get."

…

"There are no good stories. Only the singer really matters, seldom the song. What a writer brings to any story is an attitude..."

…

"Like limpets, sentiment and innocence attach themselves to a victim."

 …

"Resentment seemed to leak from him, like sweat."