I've long believed that having multiple official languages makes it very hard to sustain a united polity.

Rising inequality is a cultural and economic cancer on a lot of different levels.

[Ronald]Reagan and[George W.] Bush were far more radical than other presidents.

There's no liberal equivalent of Donald Trump.

The ability to focus on a single task for an extended period is a talent that’s underappreciated - especially by extroverts, who continue to exercise an unhealthy hegemony over most workplaces.

Smart hiring managers in the modern world should be asking, “How long can you concentrate on a task before you have to take a break?” I wonder how many of them do?

If you don’t want your followers to give up in disgust, your inspiration needs to be in the service of goals that are at least attainable.

The younger you are, the more likely you are to have grown up in a (mostly) lead-free environment, and that means you're less likely to have committed a felony or gotten sent to prison.

Because prison sentences in America tend to be long, de-incarceration lags falling crime rates by a fair amount, but eventually it does catch up.

Black crime rates fell more steeply than white crime rates, and now black incarceration is falling more steeply than white incarceration.

Of course the system can be changed. Why would I bother spending 14 years of my life blogging if I didn't believe that?

How inferior the human machine is, compared to man-made machines. They can be decoked, unscrewed, oiled and parts replaced. Decidedly, nature is not a very wonderful thing.

Comics know that time plus pain equals humor and that we can redeem even awful moments from the past by translating them into a shared experience.

Love is a complete mystery in the lives of many because they keep expecting it to come from others to them.

Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.

I want to do it because I want to do it.

In the 20th century, artists did a great disservice to fairies. They painted fairies in a way that was shallow and trite. So when people see my stuff, they suddenly realize the depth of fairies.

I haven't had that good a time in ages. Since September 11, really. I just felt so happy, it was like the sun came out of the clouds for me. I love Italy.

Chess is and will always be a game of chance.

I find it funny because people complain about Brooklyn becoming too hip, but would they prefer stock brokers or gunfights or something?

To accept reality is only to encourage it.