Brave men earn the right to shape their own destiny.

Honest history is the weapon of freedom.

The first rule of democracy is to distrust all leaders who begin to believe their own publicity.

Clarity in language depends on clarity in thought.

The basic human rights documents-the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man-were written by political, not by religious, leaders.

What we need is a rebirth of satire, of dissent, of irreverence, of an uncompromising insistence that phoniness is phony and platitudes are platitudinous.

History is, indeed, an argument without end.

The genius of impeachment lay in the fact that it could punish the man without punishing the office.

Those who are convinced they have a monopoly on The Truth always feel that they are only saving the world when they slaughter the heretics.

For most Americans the Constitution had become a hazy document, cited like the Bible on ceremonial occasions but forgotten in the daily transactions of life.

Anti-intellectualism has long been the anti-Semitism of the businessman.

We will need to find people who will provide a safe writing space for us, where criticism comes late and love and delight come early.—from Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing

If the world is a book, are you the hero, or just a walk-on part?

Oh you cut your hair! What happened? Are you going through a breakup or something?""My favorite character died.

Once a decision was made I did not worry about it afterward.

By flatterers besieged And so obliging that he ne'er obliged.

But you can catch yourself entertaining habitually certain ideas and setting others aside; and that, I think, is where our personal destinies are largely decided.

I don’t write poetry when I wish, I write when I can’t, when my larynx is flooded and my throat is shut.

I'm very much involved with Asian art and its theory and practice, mainly Chinese because that was quite sophisticated. I tend to look at that more than I look the Western.

– Diana: “Christina said the strangest thing.” – Lyon: “Of course she did.

I'm as proud of many of the things we haven't done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.