Writing a column, a weekly column for the New York Times, is really tough, and I wasn't prepared for the demands that that involved.

People found it unusual to leave a job where you're the boss.

When you're writing for the New York Times someone reading it knows the topic better than you do and knows when you've messed up.

А weekly column is really tough.

I want to have enough space to, I don't know, think thoughts. I mean, I just - I don't know that I'm capable of having an exciting, profound thought every week that's worth a column.

Slate is not a political magazine but a lot of what it does is politics.

I sound like an evangelist or something.

It's much easier to hire really great people like that in New York and in Brooklyn in particular, than it is in Washington.

I have blocks of time where I'm working intently on something.

What is Atlas Obscura? So, it was a small digital media company. It's an atlas, it's literally like, an atlas of places, wonderful, unusual places.

The New York Times is the greatest media company around, arguably, and the people at the New York Times know a lot more about making a giant successful media company than I do.

It was an uncomfortable feeling, staring into the darkest moments of someone’s soul without them knowing.

Equality cannot be imagined outside of tyranny.

Aren't we all victims of fate?

If you've never been in a dumpster coated with industrial waste while someone stabs you with a piece of sharpened rebar, then you probably wouldn't understand.

The man who cannot laugh is not only fit for treasons strategems and spoils but his whole life is already a treason and a stratagem.

The past is history; The future is a mystery; This moment is a gift; That is why this moment is called the present; Enjoy it.

For me, the original play becomes an historical document: This is where I was when I wrote it, and I have to move on now to something else.

To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is to not have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything.

If you have an idea that's going to make a big difference to people's lives, and other people are not doing it, you know, just say "screw it," do it and get on with it, and give it a go.

The dance that happens, between actor and director, is a very delicate thing...it's why people tend to work together on many films over and over.