Calvin Trillin

The way I read Billy Carter's testimony, he was a model citizen himself until the voters went and ruined his life by…

— Calvin Trillin

There's always a source for humor.

— Calvin Trillin

“Paull has his own style, which is folksy, not canned. Religion? He's got one. His prophet's Ayn Rand. By Rand's eerie theories…

— Calvin Trillin

It has long been acknowledged that the single best restaurant in the world is Arthur Bryant's Barbecue at Eighteenth and Booklyn in…

— Calvin Trillin

Taking pleasure in the dark side may be some sort of occupational hazard for reporters.

— Calvin Trillin

Money not spent on a luxury one considered even briefly is the equivalent of windfall income and should be spent accordingly.

— Calvin Trillin

How did Italy manage to end up with no Caribbean islands at all? Christopher Columbus took the trouble to discover the Caribbean…

— Calvin Trillin

“Would I be commenting on Amy Fisher? Was that the sort of subject that someone who hoped to become poet laureate should…

— Calvin Trillin

Sometimes, if I had until the next day to turn the story in, I'd head home, finding that the knot in the…

— Calvin Trillin

The talk shows are stuffed full of sufferers who have regained their health--congressmen who suffered through a serious spell of boozing and…

— Calvin Trillin

“understand what Ernest Becker meant when he said something like ‘To live fully is to live with an awareness of the rumble…

— Calvin Trillin

A new regulation for the publishing industry: "The advance for a book must be larger than the check for the lunch at…

— Calvin Trillin

As part of my research for An Anthology of Authors' Atrocity Stories About Publishers, I conducted a study (employing my usual controls)…

— Calvin Trillin

I'm more disturbed when people expect me to be serious.

— Calvin Trillin

“Going out? Are you going out? He's not going out? What do you mean he's not going out? Are you out here…

— Calvin Trillin

I've written three books you could think of as memoirs.

— Calvin Trillin

With humor, it’s so subjective that trying to think of what the ideal reader would think would drive you crazy.

— Calvin Trillin

I don't mind being interviewed on television or radio.

— Calvin Trillin

Kerr's Three Rules for a Successful College: Have plenty of football for the alumni, sex for the students, and parking for the…

— Calvin Trillin

“If Lincoln freed the slaves and preserved the Union, how come 'Lincolnesque' just means tall?”

— Calvin Trillin

I like chili, but not enough to discuss it with someone from Texas.

— Calvin Trillin

Many Texas barbecue fanatics have a strong belief in the beneficial properties of accumulated grease.

— Calvin Trillin

“Daddy, how come in Kansas City the bagels taste like just round bread?”

— Calvin Trillin

What interests me is what you might call vernacular writing, writing that connects you to a place.

— Calvin Trillin

“For Alice, of course, the measure of how you held up in the face of a life-threatening illness was not how much…

— Calvin Trillin