it is interesting to find that people of faith now seek defensively to say that they are no worse than fascists or Nazis or Stalinists

What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.

The fragility of love is what is most at stake here—humanity's most crucial three-word avowal is often uttered only to find itself suddenly embarrassing or orphaned or isolated or ill-timed—but strangely enough it can work better as a literal or reassuring statement than a transcendent or numinous or ecstatic one.

The penalty for getting mugged in an American city and losing your ID is that you can't fly home.

The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.

When you fall ill, people send you CDs. Very often, in my experience, these are by Leonard Cohen

One of the reasons I decided to apply for American citizenship after something like a quarter of century of living here on a British, European Union passport and a green card, was my identification with the United States in the post-September 11th period.