You can tell that the capitalist system is in trouble when people start talking about capitalism.

Virtue is something you have to get good at, like playing the trombone or tolerating bores at parties. Being a virtuous human being takes practice; and those who are brilliant at being human (what Christians call the saints) are the virtuosi of the moral sphere - the Pavarottis and Maradonas of virtue.

As far as belief goes, postmodernism prefers to travel light: it has beliefs, to be sure, but it does not have faith

Capitalism will behave antisocially if it is profitable for it to do so, and that can now mean human devastation on an unimaginable scale. What used to be apocalyptic fantasy is today no more than sober realism.

With fiction, you can talk about plot, character and narrative, whereas a poem brings home the fact that everything that happens in a work of literature happens in terms of language. And this is daunting stuff to deal with.

Language, identity and forms of life are the terms in which political demands are shaped and voiced.

Like all the best radical positions, then, mine is a thoroughly traditionalist one.