Ambition, if it were to be savored, let alone achieved, had to be rooted in possibility.

Generosity is a virtue for individuals, not governments. When governments are generous it is with other people’s money, other people’s safety, other people’s future.

For me, the dead remain dead. If I couldn't believe that, I don't think I could go on living.

we can forgive anything as long as it isn't done to us.

I don't see why escapist literature shouldn't also be a work of art.

I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic fascism . . . The only way to react is to get up in the morning and start the day by saying four or five vastly politically incorrect things before breakfast!

But what do you believe? I don't just mean religion. What are you sure of?" "That once I was not and that now I am. That one day I shall no longer be.