The violence in the Bible is appalling.

America was not interventionist enough, which, of course, did mean a bit of a breach with old comrades on the left. I felt the international left in the countries concerned took the same position as I did. So, in my view, it's the left that's become reactionary and isolationist and parochial.

The concept of loneliness and exile and self-sufficiency continually bucks me up.

Human beings are pattern-seeking animals who will prefer even a bad theory or a conspiracy theory to no theory at all.

One of the most repellent spectacles at election times is the pretense of piety on the part of people running for office.

If I was to interrupt this article every few sentences, asking you whether or not I was making a good impression on you, I hope and believe that you would think I was a servile jerk. Yet this is what our politicians are doing in every speech.

Hardest of all, as one becomes older, is to accept that sapient remarks can be drawn from the most unwelcome or seemingly improbable sources, and that the apparently more trustworthy sources can lead one astray.