My laptop seems to know where I am, even if I don't. My cellphone asks me if I want directions to anywhere from the spot I am standing in. I buy a record online and Amazon.com sends me letters, telling me that people who bought what I bought also bought these other records.

A lot of Americans don't have a passport, never will have a passport. Not only will they not travel, they don't want to travel.

Books are cool, but knowledge without mileage doesn't mean anything to me.

The easy solution isn't the solution, it's the problem.

I really like older writers, perhaps because they take me out of my element. I don't have a great deal of interest in reading a fictionalized present as it's pretty insane as it is.

Nothing moves me more than the history of the United States.

We Californians can watch the Weather Channel for images of winter's brutality unleashed upon our fellow Americans and thank our lucky stars we don't have to contend with it.