I suspected that there were things he knew that I had been waiting all my life to learn.

Mom was a smoker. My grandfather was a smoker. My aunts were smokers. My uncles were smokers. I don't know any smokers now, not even my mom.

Another thing I learned is that novels, even those from apparently distant times and places, remain current and enlightening, and also comforting.

The thing about Republicans is that they don't care so much about respect, but they love fear, at least in others.

Like most of the educated, I do harbor a fondness for the sins of my ignorant past.

A love story, at least a convincing one, requires three elements - the lover, the beloved, and the adventures they have together.

As Fallingwater demonstrates, Wright's genius was always specific, but also always lively, always daring.