The sad thing about doping is how much it obscures our appreciation of greatness.

Cultural legacies are powerful forces. They have deep roots and long lives. They persist, generation after generation, virtually intact, even as the economic and social and demographic conditions that spawned them have vanished, and they play such a role in directing attitudes and behavior that we cannot make sense of our world without them.

I think that persistence and stubbornness and hard work are probably, at the end of the day, more important than the willingness to take a risk.

If you think advantage lies in resources, then you think the best educational system is the one that spends the most money.

Clear writing is universal. People talk about writing down to an audience or writing up to an audience; I think that's nonsense. If you write in a way that is clear, transparent, and elegant, it will reach everyone.

When we become expert in something, our tastes grow more esoteric and complex.

My writing model is my mother, who is a writer as well. She always valued clarity and simplicity above all else. If someone doesn't understand what you're writing, then everything else you do is superfluous. Irrelevant. If any thoughtful, curious reader finds what I do impenetrable, I've failed.