I have no interest in writing confessions, in deliberately baring myself to my readers. I prefer to remain behind a screen.

I may well do some more polemical writing, if a subject that fires me up comes along. Apart from that possibility, I would like to continue to tell stories so long as I have stories to tell.

I think that Jews - because they are a distinct, gifted and successful group that differentiates itself from societies in which it lives - are vulnerable wherever the rule of law is not paramount.

If a comparative-literature major had existed at Harvard College for undergraduates I would have surely gone in that direction.

...Bad leaders are known to destroy one, more or even all of the foundations of their people’s way of life...

(…) everything is finite. Life. Love. All this.' (…) 'Sadness too. Although that's harder to let go of than happiness.

You only ask people about themselves so you can tell them about yourself.

Everyone lies. Or they have amnesia.

It is possible to live in San Francisco for $35 000 a year. Obviously that doesn't include food or lodging.

We are never so generous as when giving advice.

To be 49 years old now and still be called The Kid, that's kind of special.

Culture is a product of law. And laws create norms for society. This is why anyone who wants to change the culture of a country must try to change the norms of the country.

Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith! Banish me from Eden when you will; but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge!

True poets, like great artists, have scarcely any childhood, and no old age.