I became a journalist because one didn't have to specialise.
I became a journalist partly so that I wouldn't ever have to rely on the press for my information.
I vote and I do jury duty.
I'm not that keen on the idea of being unconscious.
The Koran shows every sign of being thrown together by human beings, as do all the other holy books.
I still make sure to go, at least once every year, to a country where things cannot be taken for granted, and where there is either too much law and order or too little.
There are people who cannot forget, as neither do I, the lesson of the years of the Indochina War. Which was, first, that the state is capable of being a murderer. A mass murderer, and a conspirator and a liar.
I still think like a Marxist in many ways.
I think the materialist conception of history is valid.
The term 'the American Left' is as near to being meaningless or nonsensical as any term could really be in politics. It isn't really a force in politics anymore. And it would do well to ask itself why that is.
I don't think consensus-building politics is what I'm meant to be doing.
Literature, not scripture, sustains the mind and - since there is no other metaphor - also the soul.
Millions of people die every day. Everyone's got to go sometime.
When we talk about mortality, we are talking about our children.
A gentleman is never rude except on purpose - I can honestly be nasty sober, believe you me.
I've had some dark nights of the soul, of course, but giving in to depression would be a sellout, a defeat.
Obscenity comes from grime.
I do not believe any of the statistical claims that are made about public opinion. I don't see why anybody does.
I'm not resigned, but I'm realistic too. The statistics in my case are very poor. Not many people come through esophageal cancer and live to talk about it, or not for long. And the other wager is, the part of the wager, it's a certainty you'll have a terrible time and you may wish you were dying because it's an awful process.
You notice how liberals keep saying, 'If only Islam would have a Reformation' - it can't have one. It says it can't. It's extremely dangerous in that way.
