The totalitarian state is not a force unleashed, the truth is in chains.

America creates myths by focusing a lot of energy on its history and using it - - not always, but sometimes - for constructive purposes.

The conservatives want to revolutionize the world all at once. And that's a dangerous proposal.

I work even when I am on vacation. You know that line by Stéphane Mallarmé, "All earthly existence must ultimately be contained in a book"? I am the kind of person who finds life interesting only if it is translated into writing, if it is parsed into words.

The euro is a great achievement. It's a symbolic achievement. But, the European constitution was a missed opportunity.

Europe needs to develop a sense of collective history - we need to write books from a European perspective, to teach it in schools as well.

I really like the United State, its relationship to space and time, its interest in mobility, its cosmopolitanism.