And though the newspapers called the shooting the Crime of the Century, Goldman knew it was only 1906 and there were ninety-four years to go.

The philosophical conservative is someone willing to pay the price of other people s suffering for his principles.

We're always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it's a little raw and nervy.

I thought of myself as a writer for years before I got around to writing anything.

And so do people pass out of one's life and all you can remember of them is their humanity, a poor fitful thing of no dominion, like your own.

The writer isn't made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century.

Whenever citizens are seen routinely as enemies of their own government, writers are rountinely seen to be the most dangerous enemies.