I don't think any good book is based on factual experience. Bad books are about things the writer already knew before he wrote them.

Robinson Crusoe, the first capitalist hero, is a self-made man who accepts objective reality and then fashions it to his needs through the work ethic, common sense, resilience, technology, and, if need be, racism and imperialism.

Incredible the animal that first dreamed of another animal.

There is no creation without tradition; the 'new' is an inflection on a preceding form; novelty is always a variation on the past.

No, it's not that they're bad. It's that they're obliged to pretend they're good. They've been brought up to deceive and be cunning, to protect themselves from our society. I don't want to be like that.

Love can isolate us from everything around us. But in its absence, we can be filled with the fear that something comparable exists.

The United States condoned dictatorships in Latin America for much of the 20th century.