My book is going to be called Against Empathy, which may give you a feeling for where my argument is going to go. Whenever I talk about this, I have to begin in the most boring of all possible ways: by defining my terms. By "empathy," some people mean everything that is good - compassion, kindness, warmth, love, being a mensch, changing the world - and I'm for all of those things. I'm not a monster.

Empathy zooms you in on an individual and, as a result, it's narrow, it's innumerate, it's racist, it's very biased.

Because of empathy, stories of the suffering of one person could lead us into a war that could kill millions of people.

I love teaching. I wouldn't take a job that didn't include it.

I am never going to write about dogs again. You can write about Islam, you can write about sexuality, but no, not dogs.

I think empathy is really important for pleasure.

When people want to inspire you to turn against some group of people, they'll often use empathy.