Skepticism rather than credulity is the highest principle that the human intellect can use to ennoble our existence.

Everyone in Iran is perceived to be a child with a paternal authority vested in the Guardian Council and the Sufi elders. They're supposed to be grateful. They can never for a moment not be afforded this wonderful protection. The father who will never go away. The father who will never quit caring for them.

I have often thought that when I do die it will be of sheer boredom.

If you can charm everyone it means you don't care about anyone in particular.

For most of my life I let women do the driving and was happy to let them.

We know of no spectacle more ridiculous—or more contemptible—than that of the religious reactionaries who dare to re-write the history of our republic. Or who try to do so. Is it possible that, in their vanity and stupidity, they suppose that they can erase the name of Thomas Jefferson and replace it with the name of some faith-based mediocrity whose name is already obscure? If so, we cheerfully resolve to mock them, and to give them the lie in their teeth.

Authors who moan with praise for their editors always seem to reek slightly of the Stockholm syndrome.