The search for Nirvana, like the search for Utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle.

The moment of near despair is quite often the moment that precedes courage.

I'm very happy by myself - I'm lucky in that way - if I've got enough to read and something to write about and a bit of alcohol for me to add an edge, not to dull it.

We know how to think. We know how to laugh. We know we're going to die, which gives us a lot to think about, and we have a need for, what I would call, "the transcendent" or "the numinous" or even "the ecstatic" that comes out in love and music, poetry, and landscape. I wouldn't trust anyone who didn't respond to things of that sort.

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

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

How is the United States at once the most conservative and commercial AND the most revolutionary society on Earth?