Religion is not something I like to talk about publicly. One reason is the politics, but also I think spirituality is deeply personal.

Chance plays a powerful role in every life - our brains and personalities are just chemical soup, after all; a few drops here or there matter enormously - but consequences often become more serious as income levels go down.

I think that right now, the global political crisis that we see all over the place has to do with virulent nostalgia. Everywhere, people are talking about taking us back to the good old days. Whether that's the "caliphate," or Britain before the EU, or "Make America Great Again." But, we can't go back and many people wouldn't want to go back even if we could.

It is the effect of scarcity; one’s rules of propriety make one thirst for the improper.

I think walking is very useful, like sleeping and dreaming, as something that's important to my ability to write.

America's strength has made it a sort of Gulliver in world affairs: By wiggling its toes it can, often inadvertently, break the arm of a Lilliputian.

All over the world, the nativist perspective is being privileged over those who are more recent arrivals.