She was widely read enough to appreciate my literary wit but not so widely read that she knew my sources. I like that in a woman.

Truth is singular. Its 'versions' are mistruths.

As long as our civilisation keeps trundling along generally forwards, then there is the possibility of a future where ethnicity is merely an interesting badge, not a uniform you can't take off.

Sometimes, comics will make the observation that it's not jokes that are funny, it's characters that are funny. And isn't that true! That's why I always kill jokes. I'm terrible at them, because I get the joke right, but I can't get the character right, and it just goes down like a lead balloon.

I'm not from a milieu where high-register language or philosophical ideas were welcome.

Oh, diplomacy ... it mops up war's spillages; legitimizes its outcomes; gives the strong state the means to impose its will on a weaker one, while saving its fleets and battalions for weightier opponents.

A mountain you're plannin' on climbin' ain't the same as the one you ain't. It ain't so pretty.