In the 1990s, we were certain that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear arsenal. In fact, his factories could barely make soap.

The tallest building in the world is now in Dubai.

The Berlin Wall wasn't the only barrier to fall after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Traditional barriers to the flow of money, trade, people and ideas also fell.

Street protests in Saudi Arabia might warm our hearts, but they could easily lead to $250 a barrel oil and a global recession.

Thanks to the Communist Party of China, we now know the path to poverty alleviation is Capitalism.

But as the arms-control scholar Thomas Schelling once noted, two things are very expensive in international life: promises when they succeed and threats when they fail.

I am an American, not by accident of birth but by choice. I voted with my feet and became an American because I love this country and think it is exceptional.

It all looks American because America, the country that invented mass capitalism and consumerism, got there first. the impact of mass capitalism is now universal.

You know, when the cost of capital goes down, when credit becomes cheap, people start taking greater and greater risks.

In a world awash in debt, power shifts to creditors.

Democracy is also a single ideology, and, like all such templates, it has its limits. what works in a legislature might not work in a corporation.

War is like a fire - if you do not put it out, it will burn itself out.

I am a better person when I let myself have the time for romance and for love.

I know there are things I did in education that will never be reversed. I have not done that in film yet because I have only been here for about nine months.

He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something by behaviour as well as application.

I know my flavor's going to work because I just know there's not a lot of guys like me around. So you got to figure out what's that about you.

It's the twenty-first century." I told Tank. "Women drive." "Only in my bed," Tank said. "Never in my car.

Whenever I get lost in a novel I just throw a poem in. What it does is flare up, and it's so illuminated that I'm able to see where to go. I write between these illuminations.

The women are always vixens or monsters. They can't just be normal people in the book.

I met BSB at a benefit gig we were both doing, and they are really humble, nice guys - and very hard working

In the broad spectrum of the arts, two worlds rarely overlap - the literary world and the world of rock music.