History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.

It proposed that human beings, by the act of making witness, warranted times and places for their existence other than the time and place they were living through.

The three most important documents a free society gives are a birth certificate, a passport, and a library card.

Longing, the hope for fulfillment, is the one unwavering passion of the world's commerce.

The Shadow had no imagination. He neither looked at naked women nor thought of ridding the world of dictators like Hitler or Mussolini.

I knew he was unreliable, but he was fun to be with. He was a child’s ideal companion, full of surprises and happy animal energy. He enjoyed food and drink. He liked to try new things. He brought home coconuts, papayas, mangoes, and urged them on our reluctant conservative selves. On Sundays he liked to discover new places, take us on endless bus or trolley rides to some new park or beach he knew about. He always counseled daring, in whatever situation, the courage to test the unknown, an instruction that was thematically in opposition to my mother’s.

We make a mistake to condescend to the past as if it were preparatory to our own time.