America, as everybody knows, is a country of many contradictions, and a big contradiction for a long time has been between a very aggressive form of capitalism and consumerism against what might be called a kind of moral or civic impulse.

The man who knows his limitations, has none.

The other half is to dramatize the fact that we still "are" human beings, now. Or can be.

I think it's easy to stop smoking; it's just hard not to commit a felony after you stop.

No wonder we cannot appreciate the really central Kafka joke: that the horrific struggle to establish a human self results in a self whose humanity is inseparable from the horrific struggle. That our endless and impossible journey toward home is in fact our home.

Not having a passport makes me very blasé about what appears in foreign periodicals since I know I'll never see it.

I have heard upscale adult U.S. citizens ask the ship's Guest Relations Desk whether snorkeling necessitates getting wet...I now know the precise mixocological difference between a Slippery Nipple and a fuzzy navel.