Kerry asks Americans to look at the evidence. Bush asks people to believe.

The average parent may, for example, plant an artist or fertilize a ballet dancer and end up with a certified public accountant. We cannot train children along chicken wire to make them grow in the right direction. Tying them to stakes is frowned upon, even in Massachusetts.

It has begun to occur to me that life is a stage I'm going through.

Maybe at 20 you can write well, but I don't think you could do what I do. Some things have to happen to you first.

The things we hate about ourselves aren't more real than things we like about ourselves.

Once upon a time we were just plain people. But that was before we began having relationships with mechanical systems. Get involved with a machine and sooner or later you are reduced to a factor.

In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right.