It's an Obama book, certainly. I was delighted, and astonished, to hear recently that he was reading it. It's a book about a new kind of American reality, one that takes diversity for granted. It doesn't celebrate diversity, actually, it just says: this is how we live now.

The white savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening.

It wasn't a deception: all lovers live on partial knowledge.

I adore imaginary monsters, but I am terrified of real ones.

There is an expectation that we can talk about sins but no one must be identified as a sinner.

The banality of evil transmutes into the banality of sentimentality. The world is nothing but a problem to be solved by enthusiasm.

It's an Obama book, certainly. I was delighted, and astonished, to hear recently that he was reading it. It's a book about a new kind of American reality, one that takes diversity for granted. It doesn't celebrate diversity, actually, it just says: this is how we live now.