Irreverence is the lifeblood of freedom.

Even for the most excitable preacher, there was nothing inherently sinful about a waffle.

Great art has dreadful manners. The greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure, and then proceed in short order to re-arrange your reality.

Charlie Hebdo: Satire was the father of true political freedom, born in the 18th century; the scourge of bigots and tyrants. Sing its praises.

Histories never conclude; they just pause their prose. Their stories are, if they are truthful, untidy affairs, resistant to windings-up and sortings-out. They beat raggedly on into the future.

What can art really do in the face of atrocity?

The irony about Charles II is not that he came to the throne because England needed a successor to Charles I, but because England needed a successor to Oliver Cromwell.

There are some places where history just grabs you by the jugular. This is one of them.

Nations don't start out. There is not a particular moment when they unveil the essence of themselves. They are always a work in progress.

But it struck me that the extreme violence and cruelty of the English Civil War had gone understated.

I actually think that history has fed off the restlessness of cyber space, of kind of the frantic, segmented nature of the way we lead our lives. People want to be connected.

She’s a serial kisser. I think her parents are French.

I’m almost afraid to tell you. Let’s put it this way: clean toilets are the least of your problems in this country.

Obtuseness is sometimes a virtue.

I think one of life's great milestones is when a person can look back and be almost as thankful for the setbacks as for the victories.

Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?

My Father always told me that a fool at 40 is a fool for life.

Malice is poisoned by her own venom.

No story has power, nor will it last, unless we feel in ourselves that it is true and true of us.

I'm the audience's representative on earth.

A soul which gives itself to prayer, either much or little, should on no account be kept within narrow bounds.