(Ron) did a smart thing, I think. He got rid of everybody and brought in a whole new staff, a bunch of us in our late 20s, kind of crazy and energetic. We were going to do whatever it took to turn the program around.

(Ron) called us into his office, I'll never forget it. He said if you all ever do that again I'll fire every one of you. There is nothing worth staying here all night, being away from your family and all that.

Right now, I've been in it about seven weeks - pretty long seven weeks. I think we've done everything with the calendar and state Legislature, the Office for Civil Rights and everybody else jumping in the brawl in the seven weeks here. But when I look around the table, I'm pretty humbled by the group here because so many of you I've worked with for so many years.

I am a writer who works from an outline. What I generally do when I build an outline is I find focal, important scenes, and I build them in my head and I don't write them yet, but I build towards them.

The only consistent hobby I've had is studying Spanish and French because of some delusion of grandeur to work around the world. I love sports but usually I'm looking for the next job.

One night I saw Jerry Lee, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Elvis for a dollar, if you believe that, in an open-air concert. Presley, I got to meet and go into his house and so forth. My wife says I should quit tellin' that story, 'cause they'll know how old I am.