People must be protected from prejudice against their person. But people cannot be protected from prejudice against their ideas - because otherwise we're all done.

I believe in the art of literature, I believe in freedom of the imagination, I believe in the kind of liberties that we enjoy in these lucky countries of the world.

When you have children, your perspective on the parent-child relationship alters.

In any authoritarian society, the possessor of power dictates, and if you try and step outside, he will come after you. This is equally true of Sovietism, of China and of Iran, and in our time it has happened a lot in Islam. The point is that it's worse when the authoritarianism is supported by something supernatural.

Thomas Pynchon looks exactly like Thomas Pynchon should look. He is tall, he wears lumberjack shirts and blue jeans. He has Albert Einstein white hair and Bugs Bunny front teeth.

All art began as sacred art, you know? I mean, all painting began as religious painting. All writing began as religious writing.

What's the use of stories that aren't even true?