I liked the trichotomy, that's the only thing I ever liked.

We've had parallel lives. And frankly, I prefer mine to his. I would not like to be George Bush.

Between Malraux, Balzac, and Montaigne, I choose Montaigne. Montaigne will survive all the others, because the essay, meaning direct communication between the writer and his reader, will outlast the novel, by at least a thousand years.

The war against terror is like a war against dandruff. It's a metaphor. It's not about anything.

The ideal to which John Adams subscribed-that we would be a nation of laws, not of men-was quickly subverted when the churches forced upon everyone, through supposedly neutral and just laws, their innumerable taboos on sex, alcohol, gambling. We are now indeed a nation of laws, mostly bad and certainly antihuman.

A good deed never goes unpunished.

That is sad until one recalls how many bad books the world may yet be spared because of the busyness of writers.