The creation of a work of art, like an act of love, is our one small 'yes' at the center of a vast 'no.'

a writer must always tell the truth (unless he's a journalist)

In Southern Europe, we have, of course, very bad governments.

Eisenhower managed to begin the Vietnam war by not following his normal instinct of staying out of mischief. In his memoirs, he tells us why we didn't honor the Geneva accords and hold elections in Vietnam: because some 80 percent of the country would have voted for Ho Chi Minh. This is very candid. The sort of thing one might have found in Stalin'smemoirs, had he not made ghosts even of ghosts.

Terrorism is a direct response to the crimes our government has committed against foreigners (besides which, the actual terrorists are within our own government)

The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.

I'd like to see a revival of state legislatures, in which I am a true Jeffersonian.