Forcing people to eat together is an effective way to promote tolerance.

Taking architecture seriously therefore makes some singular and strenuous demands upon us...It means conceding that we are inconveniently vulnerable to the colour of our wallpaper and that our sense of purpose may be derailed by an unfortunate bedspread

We are sensitized by the books we read. And the more books we read, and the deeper their lessons sink into us, the more pairs of glasses we have. And those glasses enable us to see things we would have otherwise missed.

Serious journalists often imagine society is adrift because people don't know certain things. Yet often, they know but just don't care. So the task of serious journalism isn't just to lay out truths. It is to make vital truths compelling to a big audience.

Only by declaring a book completely finished can one start to see how much remains to be done on it.

Don't despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don't - surrender to events with hope.

When Proust urges us to evaluate the world properly, he repeatedly reminds us of the value of modest scenes.