I think we have a need to know what we do not need to know.

Cast aside any column about two subjects. It means the pundit chickened out on the hard decision about what to write about that day.

Carter is the best President the Soviet Union ever had.

The tension between the governed and the governing is what makes the world go 'round. It's not love, it's that tension, because that tension exists in love affairs. The whole idea of control is at the heart of human relationships. Control and resistance to control.

One challenge to the arts in America is the need to make the arts, especially the classic masterpieces, accessible and relevant to today's audience.

Dangling punch lines to forgotten stories remain in the language like the smile of the Cheshire cat.

The trick is to start early in our careers the stress-relieving avocation that we will need later as a mind-exercising final vocation. We can quit a job, but we quit fresh involvement at our mental peril.