A novel makes it possible to understand not just events, but the people who control the events; not only their choices, but also their motives.

Nobody ever won an election by spitting at his political opponents.

People who want to wage cultural wars ought to keep in mind that cultural views often don't move at all for a very long time, but when they move they can move very fast.

Democracy requires you to learn how to lose as well as how to exercise power when you win. And that requires restraint all around. One of the reasons it works is because when you win you don't do things that are so upsetting to the losers that they feel like they have less, they have more to gain by turning over the system.

Venezuela has gone from being a democratic country 15 years ago to being totally not a democracy today. Usually that de-democratization doesn't take the form of a heavy handed police state.

Democracy is not about protests. Democracy is about meetings.

The Iraq fight itself is probably going to go very, very fast. The shooting should be over within just a very few days from when it starts.