Manners are about imagination, ultimately. They are about imagining being the other person.

The reason to stand up for punctuation is that without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning.

I hate to be treated as if I'm invisible. I get incensed when people talk across me or refuse to catch my eye in a restaurant or shop.

The way people behave towards each other is a measure of their value as human beings.

Don't pessimism and caution naturally go hand in hand?

Writers and painters alike are in the business of consulting their own imaginations, and stimulating the imaginations of others. Together, and separately, they celebrate the absolute mystery of otherness.

Why did the Apostrophe Protection Society not have a militant wing? Could I start one? Where do you get balaclavas?