America is an empire that does not wish to be one ; we are easily discouraged from doing what must be done to maintain the global order that allows democracy and prosperity to flourish.

Peter, you're twelve years old. I'm ten. They have a word for people our age. They call us children and they treat us like mice.

My college training was primarily in theatre, with an eye to becoming a director, actor, or producer.

You accomplish exactly as much as the people who serve you decide you'll accomplish and nothing more.

Oops, I thought. Oops is an all-purpose word standing for every bit of profanity, blasphemy, and pornographic and scatological execration I could think of.

Satanic Verses is a despicable book that could not have been written by a person who wished to behave decently and responsibly.

For it is in the millions of small melodies that the truth of history is always found, for history only matters because of the effects we see or imagine in the lives of the ordinary people who are caught up in, or give shape to, the great events.