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I'd love to go back. I haven't been there since. It was a student exchange deal.

"Oh!"

I think it'd be interesting to go back.

"I think it would be very different than what you saw."

It was kind of how you'd imagine. Very dark and no one talked on the street. That's the one thing that stuck in my mind is that people wouldn't talk to each other while walking down the street.

"They're afraid. Their parents came up with, or some of these older folks came up with Stalin. Ryszard Kapucinsky, the great Polish journalist who just died, his book on Russia is called 'Imperium.' I recommend it with all confidence. He talks about trying to interview people in places like Siberia and Ukraine. He said he'd ask questions and people would look at him and walk away like, 'I can't talk to you. I will not give you an opinion on anything.' He said, 'Boy no one would even look at me.' They were just beat down in that way."

Yeah, I know someone from Romania who grew up under Chauchesku. She was saying that they wouldn't talk at parties because they would get called in to the police station and they'd play a tape of the party. It was all family, but somebody was taping it. So they wouldn't talk about anything unless they were out in the mountains.

"Yeah. There's some great stories in the Kapucinsky book. One woman says to another woman, 'The bread coming from the Romanians isn't as good as it used to be.' And the other says, 'Oh, you're talking shit about the state.' And this old woman was in jail. One guy, a mover, he had to move a bust of Stalin up through in a window in a big house. A big bust of Stalin weighs several hundred pounds. It's like moving a piano, he got a pulley and rope and is winching this massive statue up through the air. Somebody comes by and asks what he's doing. 'I'm winching up this thing of Comrade Stalin.' 'Yeah, but you have the rope around Stalin's neck. You're hanging him in effigy.' 'No, I'm moving the piece of granite.' The guy did 10 years. I mention all of this only because I think America is going that way. I've been to Iran this year, I've been to Syria — I'm sure I'm on someone's list. It has definitely made me wonder if this gets listened to, if my e-mails get read. I don't exactly censor myself, but it is on my mind. I lead a fairly G/PG life. I just work — there's nothing on my harddrive. There's no little kids naked or anything. I do think about that. I didn't think about it 10 years ago, but I do think about it."

That's why I asked earlier about it crossing your mind with the USO tours or going to Iraq and talking — I wonder if they're watching me ...

"Well, there's no way you're gonna get an Iranian visa and not be immediately whacked on to some list. I think that's an immediate — a preset on the computer. I did get a pretty intense talking to at the airport when I got back from Syria. I was marched right down the hall, my little customs declaration thrown into a big, blue folder. And I had three guys going, 'So, why'd you go there?' I love this kind of thing. I like that kind of confrontation. They go, 'You know it's very hot there.' I go, 'Yes, I know. By noon it was really hot.' They go, 'No, not that way.' And so, we kind of got into it. I'd say, 'There's my laptop; go through it. Here's my suitcase.' And they just kind of turned me loose. But, I did get the talking to."

Out of my own curiosity — if you had to name the top five places to see, would you be able to narrow it down?

"As far as places I would suggest? You've gotta see the Pyramids, the Sphynx and sail on the Nile. That's amazing. If you can stand it, you should rent a vehicle and drive across the Sinai, that's pretty cool. Tokyo — Japan is very beautiful. To walk around Tokyo is an amazing city. Everyone should go ... well, you should think about Africa; parts of Africa to see, meet someone from a Masai village. Or to go to an Arabian country — Iran or a Persian place where customs are vastly different than your own. Cairo is an amazing city. Paris is a beautiful city. Australia is amazing."

I get the impression you try to stay off the tourist track, too.

"Yeah. Calcutta — I went all over eastern India years ago. India was wild. St. Petersburg, Russia is amazing. As far as something visually odd, the Pyramids and all of that. Hopefully, next year — I was in Jordan this year, but I didn't have time to go to Petra. Anywhere where the Romans set up camp for a while, there's gonna be some beautiful stuff. There's parts of Lebanon that I didn't get to see — again, the Romans left behind some interesting stuff. So, there's a lot of places to go see."