The ideas of theologians are refuted by their adversaries, the ideas of scientists are refuted by their followers.

Since God is silent, man is his own master; he must live in a disenchanted world, submit everything to criticism, and make his own way.

Every historian has informally an anthropology, without ever using the word.

To have a liberal temperament is a kind of psychological boon, To be able to understand that someone you disagree with is not just a terrible creature but somebody with whom you disagree.

My definition of modernism took a while to develop.

My assumption is that fundamentally the picture of the human animal, as developed by Freud, is largely right.

People seem to forget that one reason they are now thinking differently is Freud's legacy itself.

And my interest in history was, and remains, very strong: what I wanted was to understand certain things better by understanding them psychoanalytically.

With the passage of years, not all of Dicken's readers remained infatuated with his pathos. One generation's sublimity became another generation's kitsch.

I have always had a strong interest in history and finding out about the past can be remarkably helpful with working out the future, too.

What interests me, and has always interested me, has been modernism.

All stories are love stories.

Any informed borrower is simply less vulnerable to fraud and abuse.

It's a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy.

To be a good model, I'd need a lot more confidence... and more confidence to be more bare.

It was the purest love without purpose other than love itself. Without tenure or jealousy.

I think comedy is the hardest actual form of writing there is.

A runner's stride is not perfectly efficient.

If Woody Allen were a Muslim, he'd be dead by now.

I like to remind myself that everything is meaningless.