Clearly, some time ago makers and consumers of American junk food passed jointly through some kind of sensibility barrier in the endless quest for new taste sensations. Now they are a little like those desperate junkies who have tried every known drug and are finally reduced to mainlining toilet bowl cleanser in an effort to get still higher.

Taxonomy is described sometimes as a science and sometimes as an art, but really it’s a battleground.

A cough so robust that I tapped into two new seams of phlegm.

A sign in the yard of a church next door said CHRIST IS THE ANSWER. (The question, of course, is: What do you say when you strike your thumb with a hammer?)

I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.

Energy is liberated matter, matter is energy waiting to happen.

America is a very seductive place in terms of lifestyle and comfort, but it wasn't for me.