I suppose that one is always tempted to challenge those who think that they and they alone possess the truth or the way or the key to the mystery.

This separation was absolute in our original Republic. But the sky-godders do not give up easily. In the 1950s they actually got the phrase In God We Trust onto the currency, in direct violation of the First Amendment.

In a society like ours, politics is improvisation. To the artful dodger rather than the true believer goes the prize.

In large Victorian houses with many rooms and heavy doors, the occupants could be mysterious and exciting to one another in a way that those who live in rackety developments can never hope to be. Not even the lust of a Lord Byron could survive the fact of Levittown.

I have always regarded as a stroke of good fortune that I was not born or brought up in a small American town; they may be the backbone of the nation, but they are also the backbone of ignorance, bigotry, and boredom, all in vast quantities.

We have a great deal to learn from Scandinavia and a great deal to be alarmed at from the Mediterranean.

In writing and politicking, it's best not to think about it, just do it.