The disagreeable reality for those who believe in human rights is that there are some occasions-and Iraq may be one of them-when war is the only real remedy for regimes that live by terror.

A liberal society cannot be defended by herbivores. We need carnivores to save us, but we had better make sure the meat-eaters hunt only on our orders.

Well, I'm an absolute fan of lacy lingerie. I want to make that perfectly clear.

There's a civic nationalism in Britain and dozens of other countries.

There's intense national feeling in America that could be called patriotism.

Patriotism is strong nationalistic feeling for a country whose borders and whose legitimacy and whose ethnic composition is taken for granted.

An intellectual may be interested in ideas and policies for their own sake, but a politician's interest is exclusively in the question of whether an idea's time has come.

Memory is the only afterlife I have ever believed in. But the forgetting inside us cannot be stopped. We are programmed to betray.

I distinguish, between nationalism and patriotism.

It's good for people to believe in causes larger than themselves.

There are lots of nations in the world or national peoples who don't yet have states. They're inside someone else's state and they want a state of their own.

Be happy with those who are joyful.

Happiness comes from striving to make tomorrow better than today and being at peace when yesterday was better than today as well.

Because I was born in the South, I'm a Southerner. If I had been born in the North, the West or the Central Plains, I would be just a human being.

As a character, you're working within the realm of what's on the [script] page.

Timeliness is best in all matters.

THERE IS A PERIOD WHEN IT IS CLEAR THAT YOU HAVE GONE WRONG BUT YOU CONTINUE. SOMETIMES THERE IS A LUXURIOUS AMOUNT OF TIME BEFORE ANYTHING BAD HAPPENS.

I write poems, have always written them, to transcend the painfully personal and reach the universal.

The Devil knows your name but calls you by your sin. God knows your sin but calls you by your name.

One compositional element suggests and asks for another. This is what makes the activity interesting.

Never tell your wife she's bad in bed. She'll go out and get a second opinion.