Our job as writers and thinkers in the time is how to bring about the occasions that let people have that first-person experience - or the metaphoric experience that allows them to see human continuity as opposed to total threat, total willingness to do violence.

People don't really think other people are the same.

Unfortunately, I'm not a person that's always capable of living up to the Boy Scout philosophy.

Under popular culture's obsession with a naive inclusion, everything is O.K.

The high point of civilization is that you can hate me and I can hate you but we develop an etiquette that allows us to deal with each other because if we acted solely upon our impulse we'd probably go to war.

Our society has gotten to the point where we might soon become less and less shocked by any kind of violence.

Louis Armstrong, who learned to be in exquisite dress, came from the bottom, and he's not a trash can.