I don't like people who speak or think in terms of gaining anybody's confidence. If one's actions are honest, one does not need the predated confidence of others, only their rational perception. The person who craves a moral blank check of that kind, has dishonest intentions, whether he admits it to himself or not.

I write - and read - for the sake of the story... My basic test for any story is: 'Would I want to meet these characters and observe these events in real life? Is this story an experience worth living through for its own sake? Is the pleasure of contemplating these characters an end itself?

Ever since Kant divorced reason from reality, his intellectual descendants have been diligently widening the breach.

Man holds these rights [life, liberty and property], not from the Collective nor for the Collective, but against the Collective - as a barrier which the Collective cannot cross... these rights are man's protection against all other men.

You know, I think that only if one feels immensely important can one feel truly light.

Everyone has the right to make his own decisions, but none has the right to force his decision on others.

The nation which once held the creed that greatness is achieved by production, is now told that it is achieved by squalor.