I love research. I'd go so far as to say I'm a research fanatic.

And one of the interesting things about bound feet is that they never age.

The classics tell us that, in relationships, the one between teacher and student comes second only to the one between parent and child.

Model communes are the ones where the leaders lie the best and the biggest.

But there are certain books I would never put on a Kindle because you want to be able to look at graphs and photos or the footnotes and maps. You can't see that.

Mama used to tell us a story about a cicada sitting high in a tree. It chirps and drinks in dew, oblivious to the praying mantis behind it. The mantis arches up its front leg to stab the cicada, but it doesn't know an oriole perches behind it. The bird stretches out its neck to snap up the mantis for a midday meal, but its unaware of the boy who's come into the garden with a net. Three creatures—the cicada, the mantis and the oriole—all coveted gains without being aware of the greater and inescapable danger that was coming.

I love research. I'd go so far as to say I'm a research fanatic.