When I was 14 I felt very rundown I had a home to go to but I felt like I was 60 or something older than I feel now. And I don't know if it's something that happens at 14 or whether it was adolescence or whether I was gay or closeted gay or whatever it was I felt that.

Part of what I loved - and love - about being around older people is the tangible sense of history they embody. I'm interested in military history for instance because both my grandfathers fought in World War II. I'm interested in writing because one of those grandfathers wrote books.

What I am saying is all health care has a problem with costs. Medicare is growing slower than the private insurance plans. Why? Because of their efficiency. They don't have to give money to shareholders. Why should be defending shareholders?

When you get older your health becomes important to you things start breaking down you've always got a different ache or pain.

I basically believe the medical insurance industry should be nonprofit not profit-making. There is no way a health reform plan will work when it is implemented by an industry that seeks to return money to shareholders instead of using that money to provide health care.

Today we have a health insurance industry where the first and foremost goal is to maximize profits for shareholders and CEOs not to cover patients who have fallen ill or to compensate doctors and hospitals for their services. It is an industry that is increasingly concentrated and where Americans are paying more to receive less.

I believe the most important aspect of Medicare is not the structure of the program but the guarantee to all Americans that they will have high quality health care as they get older.

I find that the older I get the more I see that there really aren't huge zeniths of happiness or a huge abyss of darkness as much as there used to be.

The older I get the more I see that there really aren't huge zeniths of happiness or a huge abyss of darkness as much as there used to be. I tend to walk a middle ground.

I'm actually tougher on myself as I get older. It's a vicious cycle. The things that are important in life are the things that you can't buy in life: love health and happiness. I say that and I believe that and I try to live that.