One of my problems with terrorism is that it's self-evidently bad. The main thing that makes it complicated is the fact that it works. When you go at it with a moral hammer, it's really, really bad. It's so bad you wouldn't believe it because you don't accomplish anything. I think the one thing terrorists themselves are vulnerable to is mockery. It's an excellent weapon.

Reading time is precious. Don't waste it. Reading bad books, or books that are wrong for a certain time in your life, can dangerously turn you off the activity altogether.

...some people coddle their own afflictions the way others spoil small pedigreed dogs with cans of pate.

Everything people do that doesn’t work has to be somebody else’s fault. Next time you know, geezers’ll be suing the government for getting old and kids’ll be taking their mommies to court because they came out ugly.

I have no end of failings as a mother, but I have always followed the rules.

The Web, the great time-killer that had replaced conspicuously passive television with its seductive illusion of productivity.

You were always uncomfortable with the rhetoric of emotion, which is quite a different matter from discomfort with emotion itself.