The tragedy of journalism is that these are people doing their best work.

You always end up with too much, so it's good to be part of the conversation about not just what you can omit, but how you are going to do the grammar of the omission, how you make things continue to work when there's something missing. It's your last chance to rewrite.

A man speaking sense to himself is no madder than a man speaking nonsense not to himself.

People think there's a choice between smoking and immortality, but we've all got to die of something.

Whatever became of the moment when one first knew about death? There must have been one. A moment. In childhood. When it first occurred to you that you don’t go on forever. It must have been shattering, stamped into one’s memory. And yet, I can’t remember it.

I don't write at the library, because I smoke when I work or would like the possibility of a smoke. Also, I need to be at my own desk.

War is capitalism with the gloves off and many who go to war know it but they go to war because they don't want to be a hero.