Young men kill someone for a handful of coins, then are remorseless, even casual: Hey, man, things happen. And their parents nab the culprit: it was the city, the cops, the system, the crowd, the music. Anyone but him. Anyone but me.

Decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

Barack Obama presents as kind of a cool character, and I think that that's his natural personality.

I was a kid who sometimes got in trouble because I couldn't keep my mouth shut, which turned out to be an advantage when I became an opinion columnist.

You teach your 16-year-old with your heart in your mouth to be a good driver and none of that makes any difference when some drunk comes around a corner and runs a stop sign.

Over the last twenty years, we've changed the world just enough to make it radically different, but not enough to make it work.

Today is the only guarantee you get.