I don't even like showing my stuff to publishers and editors much.

Flaubert was right when he said that our use of language is like a cracked kettle on which we bang out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we need to move the very stars to pity.

Hannah Arendt in her study of totalitarianism borrowed from Immanuel Kant the concept of radical evil, of evil that's so evil that in the end it destroys itself, it's so committed to evil and it's so committed to hatred and cruelty that it becomes suicidal. My definition of it is the surplus value that's generated by totalitarianism. It means you do more violence, more cruelty than you absolutely have to to stay in power.

To what faults do you feel most indulgent? To the ones that arise from urgent material needs.

No moral person would do such a thing unless they thought it was divinely warranted.

Friends call me Hitch. Maybe it can be turned into a 900-phone number. People would pay to talk to me.

The amazing fact is that America is founded on a document. It's a work in progress. It can be tested by each generation.