Be careful about Burma. Most people cannot remember whether it was Siam and has become Thailand, or whether it is now part of Malaysia and should be called Sri Lanka.

They keep telling us that in war truth is the first casualty, which is nonsense since it implies that in times of peace truth stays out of the sick bay or the graveyard.

The First Law of Journalism: to confirm existing prejudice, rather than contradict it.

A childish soul not inoculated with compulsory prayer is a soul open to any religious infection.

There's a whole journalistic-industrial complex dedicated to keeping newsprint, TV screens and radio waves clean of destabilizing scoops damaging to corporations or the state.

Nothing can inspire religious duty or animation but religion.

Pose a political threat to Business As Usual, and sooner or later, mostly sooner, someone will try to kill you.

The travel writer seeks the world we have lost - the lost valleys of the imagination.

In its attempt to crush the Black Panthers, the FBI engineered frequent arrests on the flimsiest of pretexts.

Despair is the central part of the psychopathology. For the handmaiden of gossip is treachery.

The art of politics is to separate actions from consequences

When you work under the cloud of anxiety, the best strategy is to play it safe, because if (when!) it fails, you’ll be blameless.

The real world is not easy to live in. It is rough it is slippery. Without the most clear-eyed adjustments we fall and get crushed.

Feeling stuck or indecisive? Listen to your intuition and make a decision

I write for the still, small possibility of justice.

I like to respond with jokes and to keep it as light as possible.

You are the light of consciousness and also the witness of this light. You are pure awareness.

[On John Cleese:] He sometimes seems to swat at his own thoughts as if they were bees.

I grew up near the sea in British Columbia and San Francisco, and lived in Malibu and Fiji for years. I get uncomfortable being too far inland.

I consider it to be the meaning of my whole life and my obligation to serve my fatherland and our people.

I don't want money badly enough to work for it.