The name America has definitely grown on me. I wish there was a big patriotic story behind it, but the truth is that my grandfather was a librarian who knew all sorts of random facts.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I don't really know what the Great American Novel is. I like the idea that there could be one now, and I wouldn't object if someone thought it was mine, but I don't claim to have written that - I just wrote my book.
For many of us who were born and raised in this country, including me, it's sometimes easy to forget how special America really is.
I think the name of the show, 'This American Life' - we named it that just because it seemed like it made the thing feel big. But we don't think about whether it's an American story or not. We happen to be Americans. I think for the stories to work, they have to be universal.
The America we all know has been a story of the many becoming one, uniting to preserve liberty, uniting to build the greatest economy in the world, uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness.
I've always tried to write about America. It's very worth a writer's effort.
America is remarkable, don't you think so? When I came to Washington, I was twelve years old. I spoke English with an English accent. It was assumed that it would go on in that way.
You grew up with America on the TV, and you think you know a place before you get there, and you have this idea of it in your head.
I was born and grew up in the greatest, the noblest achievement of the human race on this planet - which was called the United States of America.
My own special relationship with America began at an early age. My father, a fellow journalist, named me after Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
It's a big statement if you use the word 'America' in the title of your poem.