The only siblings I have are half-siblings. My nuclear family would have been an extra-suffocating threesome. Instead, I have an interesting brother and sister, in-laws, and darling nephews.

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

Critical thinking is to a liberal education as faith is to religion. ... the converse was true also - faith is to a liberal education as critical thinking is to religion, irrelevant and even damaging.

Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.

How will you know a good farmer when you meet him? He will not ask you for any favors.

Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states.

We sort of read two or three big newspapers but we don't get the flavor of the local events, the local news as much.