I have two teenage sons, and they're both surviving, thriving, and having a great time, and they're always on social media.

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 we're going to care more about Americans than Africans. I don't think that's ever going to go away, and I don't think it's ever going to go away that people care more about their families than strangers, and their communities over other communities. But I think it would transform the world in such a good way if we could just acknowledge, at least intellectually, that an African life and an American life are the same.

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

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

I'm not a pacifist. I think the suffering of innocent people can be a catalyst for moral action. But empathy puts too much weight on the scale in favor of war. Empathy can really lead to violence.

Our best hope for the future [...] lies in an appreciation of the fact that, even if we don’t empathize with distant strangers, their lives have the same value as the lives of those we love.