Books gave us a way to shape ourselves - to form our thoughts and to signal to each other who we were and who we wanted to be. They were part of our self-fashioning, no less than our clothes.

I'm not a policy expert - I am only arguing that there is more to an education than an economic ticket.

The best education for a writer, I think, is to read a lot - college can be a good place to do that.

I would have thought that one of the things one should learn from college is that nothing is guaranteed. Even if you study something as vocational as accountancy, you still may end up not getting a job as an accountant.

Best qualification for an aspiring journalist is curiosity.

I think it's a terrible mistake to only think in terms of a degree "buying" you something.

My longest love affair: with a book.