less real than such threats as a man with a gun, a woman with a knife, or a U.S. Senator with an idea.

Reality isn't what it used to be.

One of the greatest gifts we receive from dogs is the tenderness they evoke in us

I have to admit that when I watch a movie in which there is no moral context for the violence - I find that offensive. I think that's potentially damaging to society.

How passionately we love everything that cannot last: the dazzling crystallory of winter, the spring in bloom, the fragile flight of butterflies, crimson sunsets, a kiss, and life.

Every life is complicated, every mind a kingdom of unmapped mysteries.

We are coming out of a century that was taught that one way of looking at the world, that one form of behavior, is as valid as another. The idea of true evil has been blown away.