Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.

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.

When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.

No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.

I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.

The wonderful thing about being a New York Times columnist is that it's like a Supreme Court appointment - they're stuck with you for a long time.

I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.