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

Those of us who write and study history are accustomed to its approximations and ambiguities. This is why we do not take literally the tenth-hand reports of frightened and illiterate peasants who claim to have seen miracles or to have had encounters with messiahs and prophets and redeemers who were, like them, mere humans. And this is also why we will never submit to dictation from those who display a fanatical belief in certainty and revelation.

I leave it to the faithful to burn each other's churches and mosques and synagogues, which they can be always relied upon to do

A good liar must have a good memory. Kissinger is a stupendous liar with a remarkable memory.

At the evident risk of seeming ridiculous, I want to begin by saying that I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously. I hope this isn't too melodramatic or self-centred a way of saying that I attempt to write as if I did not care what reviewers said, what peers thought, or what prevailing opinions may be.

There either is a god or there is not; there is a 'design' or not.

Talking, it seemed to me, was the point of adult existence.