My own view is that institutions are a glory, and for all their imperfections, something really to be proud of. It is true that things can be a lot better than they are. It's okay to emphasize that.

There are some lawyers who think of themselves as basically instruments of whoever their clients are, and they pride themselves on their professional craft

We ought to ban hunting, I suggest, if there isn't a purpose other than sport and fun. That should be against the law.

How do things, whether they are movies, or plays, Hamilton, or people, ideas - how do they become transformative or iconic? That is in some ways what the actual Star Wars saga gets at, with the tale of the rise and the fall of the empire and the rise and the fall of Republics.

Faust seems to have exerted a big influence on Star Wars. You know, the "give up your soul for immortality" or something.

I would reject the distinction between a Keynesian moment and a behavioral moment.

There are bursts of things like Abraham Lincoln or Ronald Reagan or Franklin Delano Roosevelt or same-sex marriage that change very much what we thought we were all about.