I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.

In the end, the thing that's important about free expression is that it's the right from which all other rights are derived. If you can't articulate ideas and if you can't articulate critiques of other peoples' ideas, then you're powerless. What always increases the power of an authoritarian regime is whether it can successfully prevent people from expressing themselves.

I do not envy people who think they have a complete explanation of the world, for the simple reason that they are obviously wrong.

You want all your books to stick around after you've gone.

You don't that often see writers being sought out when there are matters of great moment to discuss. And I think that's a loss.

Original thought, original artistic expression is by its very nature questioning, irreverent, iconoclastic.

Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.