faith without doubt is addiction

The only way of living in a free society is to feel that you have the right to say and do stuff.

You don't fight radical conservatism with not-quite-so radical conservatism.

Meaning is a shaky edifice we build out of scraps, dogmas, childhood injuries, newspaper articles, chance remarks, old fillms, small victories, people hated, people loved; perhaps it is because our sense of what is the case is constructed from such inadequate materials that we defend it so fiercely, even to death.

I don't like books that play to the gallery, but I've become more concerned with telling a story as clearly and engagingly as I can.

I have always thought, the secret purpose of the book tour is to make the writer hate the book he's written. And, as a result, drive him to write another book.

I did a lot of student acting when I was young.