People may go to the library looking mainly for information, but they find each other there.

What really matters from the point of view of social capital and civic engagement is not merely nominal membership, but active and involved membership.

Young Americans are dropping out of religion at an alarming rate of five to six times the historic rate.

Our national myths often exaggerate the role of the individual heroes and understate the importance of collective effort.

How well you do in life shouldn't depend on how well your parents did.

Social capital may turn out to be a prerequisite for, rather than a consequence of, effective computer-mediated communication.

Positive people have more friends which is a key factor of happiness and longevity.

Busy people tend to forgo the one activity - TV watching _ that is most lethal to community involvement

None of the people watching 'Big Brother' will bring you chicken soup if you get sick.

Look, we ought to do this for our kids... We ought to have a high school so that every kid who grows up here - they're all our kids - gets a good high school education.

Slavery was, in fact, a social system designed to destroy social capital among slaves and between slaves and freemen.

There are situations where the best solution still doesn't make everyone happy. The trick is understanding what's best.

You know those movies where the people in the audience are screaming, 'Don't go in that door!' because you know the killer is there? Well, it is the same thing with this debt. We know how this ends.

My fingers are not as fast as my brain - which isn't that much to type home about anyway.

Bad art might be defined as a series of bad choices about what to show and what to leave out.

In short stories it is better to say not enough than to say too much, because, because--I don't know why.

When asked if he was a basketball player he replied No I clean giraffe ears.

They weren't crazy. They were tired of being locked up. Even I could see that.

The only thing that we have earned at the hands of perfect justice is perfect punishment.

Ive been so spoiled in the theater, writing plays where I can just do exactly what I want and nobody messes with me.