I love historical novels and thought Gore did a good job [with Lincoln], but had he known then what we know now, it could have been better. When we met about three years ago, I said, “Gore, how come someone like you, who has such sensitive antenna [sic], never twigged that [Abraham Lincoln] could be gay?” And he said, “You bastard! Don’t you think I asked myself that very question?”

- Journalist Tariq Ali, in response to be asked to name his favorite novels by a writer for the New York Post