I don't think conservativism is about a deficiency. I think it's about a commitment to an ideology that has to in some ways devalue the usefulness of empathy. I do think empathy can be learned. And enhanced.

I feel like one of the things I'm trying most to do is stretch my empathetic reach, as far as it will go. I got as far as Gilles de Rais' assistant, for example, and not really as far as de Rais himself.

Oh, I usually don't know a whole lot about a subject when I begin; the process itself teaches me a lot as I go along. Usually I know enough about one narrow area of the subject to start myself going, and then everything - including a lot more research - follows from that.

Christy has not been given a fair shake. She has not been identified as a competent premier.

I'm tempted to do everything. And sometimes I think, "Oh, come on. You can stick that detail somewhere."

It turns out that our intuition is a greater genius than we are.

I very much like people. I don't much like writers who don't.