We each have a litany of holiday rituals and everyday habits that we hold on to, and we often greet radical innovation with the enthusiasm of a baby meeting a new sitter. We defend against it and - not always, but often enough - reject it. Slowly we adjust, but only if we have to.

In today's amphetamine world of news junkies, speed trumps thoughtfulness too often.

Taboos are falling across our culture like dominoes. What was unspeakable yesterday dominates talk shows today.

We may never know why Joe Ellis fabricated a heroic past. But we know that the life he embellished has deeply diminished the life he'd earned.

I regard this novel as a work without redeeming social value, unless it can be recycled as a cardboard box.

Every thing, even the so-called timesaving device and energy-efficient machine, comes these days with an elaborate set of instructions for its care and feeding. Buying a machine has become more and more like buying a pet. ... We are time-crunched. Not just by the number of things we have to do, but the number of things we have. In the late twentieth century, things have become our new dependents.

instant opinion is an oxymoron. You don't get real opinions in an instant. You get reactions.