Mike Kelly [from The Atlantic] called me up and said he could pay me less money.

It doesn't matter how many televisions and computers and pieces of stereo equipment the Chinese send to us, even if they're sending them to us only in return for some funny, little, green pieces of paper. That is a balanced trade. They got what they wanted: the green pieces of paper. We got what we wanted: the plush toys, the computers, the stereo components.

The good news is that, according to the Obama administration, the rich will pay for everything. The bad news is that, according to the Obama administration, you're rich.

In 1970 or '71, early in the magazine, Michael O'Donoghue did maybe eight pages of a 1958 yearbook, from Ezra Taft Benson High School. But by the time the [book-length] high-school yearbook came around, he didn't want to be involved.

Popular culture has become engorged, broadening and thickening until it's the only culture anyone notices.

People who are wise, good, smart, skillful, or hardworking don't need politics, they have jobs.

Fortunately, I'm married to someone who's a pretty excellent parent!