It's a feature of our age that if you write a work of fiction, everyone assumes that the people and events in it are disguised biography — but if you write your biography, it's equally assumed you're lying your head off.

You hear doom and gloom about the Internet ruining young people's command of English - that's nonsense.

Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy - which many believe goes hand in hand with it - will be dead as well.

'1984' is not a wonder tale. Not only could it happen, but it has happened, but under different names.

If he wants to be an asshole, it's a free country. Millions before him have made the same life choice.

That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.

Even an obvious fabrication is some comfort when you have few others.