The essence of spirit ... was to choose the thing which did not better one's position but made it more perilous. That was why the world he knew was poor, for it insisted morality and caution were identical.

Obsession is the single most wasteful human activity, because with an obsession you keep coming back and back and back to the same question and never get an answer.

The contradictory remarks of politicians are forgotten; the more asinine predictions of pundits are buried with mercy.

You have the right to speak your mind.

We sail across dominions barely seen, washed by the swells of time. We plow through fields of magnetism. Past and future come together on thunderheads and our dead hearts live with lightning in the wounds of the Gods.

The sole virtue of losing your short-term memory is that it does free you to be your own editor.

Culture's worth huge, huge risks. Without culture we're all totalitarian beasts.