Literature is being taught as though it were only political medicine or political poison-a view that is not only illiberal but illiterate.

Cognitive science is a rapidly developing area, so it could be that there are some surprises around the corner. That does seem to be kind of where the trend line is leading.

Universities are set up to get people to work together by having them disagree with each other.

You want diversity in any intellectual organization. I mean, that's how good ideas arise.

I don't think that taste should be the decider of moral issues.

I don't think that you want to see universities in any way trying to have any kind of quota system about political views, or views in general. You want the market to work in the way the market works.

I'm not one of the people who has a kind of scholarly hat and writes in a certain way for an academic audience and then puts on a public intellectual hat and writes a different way for a different kind of readership. I generally write the way I write, no matter what and it seems to have worked for me.