But you can't start. Only a baby can start. You and me - why, we're all that's been. The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that's us. This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us. We can't start again.

The final weapon is the brain, all else is supplemental.

The new American finds his challenge and his love in the traffic-choked streets, skies nested in smog, choking with the acids of industry, the screech of rubber and houses leashed in against one another while the town lets wither a time and die.

Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain and if you don't believe that, watch an illiterate adult try to do it.

But most important of all, the truth, that dangerous stuff, became beautiful and more precious.

I know now why confusion in government is not only tolerated but encouraged. I have learned. A confused people can make no clear demands.

There's more beauty in the truth even if it is dreadful beauty.