A democracy depends upon people getting brighter all the time. Democracies are delicate. They're not just ipso facto and just go on and on.

The private terror of the liberal spirit is invariably suicide, not murder.

I think the internet is the greatest waste of time since masturbation was discovered.

While I'm working on a book, I rarely read anything more than The New York Times. Which may have the long-term effect of flattening my style.

You have the right to speak your mind.

Each day a few more lies eat into the seed with which we are born, little institutional lies from the print of newspapers, the shock waves of television, and the sentimental cheats of the movie screen.

We are all so guilty at the way we have allowed the world around us to become more ugly and tasteless every year that we surrender to terror and steep ourselves in it.