O the shame of it, the humiliating shame of being condescended to by dolts

A little bit of one story joins onto an idea from another, and hey presto, . . . not old tales but new ones. Nothing comes from nothing.

I get a lot of letters - a lot of letters saying, who knew that you were funny?

The PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award is a way of spotlighting individual cases. If you look at the history of the award, the freedom rate is very high: a very high percentage of people who receive those awards are freed in the next six months to a year. The only weapon there is attention, but interestingly it works.

Masks beneath masks until suddenly the bare bloodless skull.

The west was involved in toppling the Mossadegh government. That ultimately led to the Iranian revolution.

Fundamentalists believe that we don't believe in anything. In their view of the world, they are in possession of absolute certainties, while we are descending into decadence. We will be able to triumph over terrorism not by waging war on it, but through a conscious, fearless way of life.