In bookstores, my stuff is usually filed in the out-of-the-way, additional interest sections.

The future will be like the past, in the sense that, no matter how amazing or technologically advanced a society becomes, the basic human rhythm of petty malevolence, sordid moneygrubbing, and official violence, illuminated by occasional bursts of loyalty or desire or tenderness, will go on.

If we are willing to act violently in pursuit of a peripheral interest, everyone can be certain that, when a vital interest is at stake, we will be still more violent. 'Credibility' is defined as the willingness to kill a lot of people now for a not very good cause to assure the world that we'll kill a lot more people if we can find a better one.

I don't miss the obligation to be opinionated, but I do regret the chance to share a joy.

New York has always been a place where it is possible to have memories without the experience that conventionally precede them.

I think that we're always drawn - particularly sophisticated people - are always drawn to the idea of simplicity.

The loneliness of the expatriate is of an odd and complicated kind, for it is inseparable from the feeling of being free, of having escaped.