Everybody loves 'The Wire,' and I think it's okay, but in the end it's just a police series.

The thing that I think was very brave of my younger self was that he decided he would be an idiot. Just persevere. That feels brave to me: deciding that I'm going to damn well be this person that I've set my heart on being.

But love is what we want, not freedom. Who then is the unluckier man? The beloved, who is given his heart's desire and must for ever after fear its loss, or the free man, with his unlooked-for liberty, naked and alone between the captive armies of the earth?

Free speech is not just free speech for people you admire. It's also for people who you think of as reprehensible.

All my adult life, if I didn't have several hours a day to sit in a room by myself, I would get antsy and irritable.

From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.

If you want to be a serious writer, then you have to write what there is to write about. If you're going to pull your punches and second-guess yourself and not do things because you're worried, then don't write. Stay home and do something else.