You can call it innocence, or you can call it gullibility, but Celia made the most common mistake of the good-hearted: she assumed that everyone else was just like her.

Only a country that feels invulnerable can afford political turmoil as entertainment.

Many, if not most, countries blithely expect their citizens to have carte blanche access to the U.S., "land of immigrants," as a veritable human right, but put up all manner of barriers to Americans who want to emigrate in the opposite direction.

I was suffering from the delusion that it's the thought that counts.

The fact that my clothing has been visually available to other people I do not find upsetting. The body is another matter. It is mine; I have found it useful; but it is an avatar.

A boy is a dangerous animal.

...hoarders of guilty secrets are inevitably consumed with appearances.