I'm a true reactionary. Like all patricians, I'd like to restore the original republic, which we lost 40 years ago when Harry Truman imposed the national security state on us, which has kept us at war, hot or cold, for almost half a century, and it's got us $4 trillion into debt.

Poor John Simon - what a nightmare, to wake up in the morning and realize that you are John Simon.

Americans are not only a less homogenous population than we were when we were 3 million ex-colonists, but we're less educated. On top of that, we have constant misinformation and manipulation by media.

The best novelist of my generation is an Italian living in Paris, still working and improving - Italo Calvino.

We affect one another quite enough merely by existing. Whenever the stars cross, or is it comets? fragments pass briefly from one orbit to another. On rare occasions there is total collision, but most often the two simply continue without incident, neither losing more than a particle to the other, in passing.

I have always found men quite fathomable. They look entirely to their own interest.

There are certain truths so true that they are practically unbelievable.