For much of its existence, design was all about convenience. We wanted to hide technology so that users are not distracted into thinking about the tools they use.
I've told several writers this, and, again, I get back to it, but if you want to make God smile, tell him your plans.
Being around some of the bright lights of the technology world and having them expect great things helps you sit down and do it seriously.
'Social engineering,' the fancy term for tricking you into giving away your digital secrets, is at least as great a threat as spooky technology.
The great myth that many social scientists want to encourage is that there is an incompatibility between modern technology and traditional religion. This is absolute nonsense. If anything, it's the reverse.
When I left 'American Morning' in 2007, I'd focused on doing documentaries. But I thought 'Starting Point' was a great opportunity to be involved in the zeitgeist.
A good idea will keep you awake during the morning, but a great idea will keep you awake during the night.
Remember how Margaret Thatcher came to believe that abroad was more important than at home? Didn't do her much good.
But as I was saying, from my experiences, I think men tend to be more timid in expressing their feelings for you. Regardless, I always prefer a friendship first and foremost.
As an undergraduate, I took a theology course titled Religion as Writing. If writing can be considered a form of faith, then inevitably doubt has to accompany it.
The Constitution was the expression not only of a political faith, but also of political fears. It was wrought both as the organ of the national interest and as the bulwark of certain individual and local rights.
Used to be, conservatives revered the Average American, that Norman Rockwell oil painting of diner food, humble faith, honest toil, and Capraesque virtue.
Going to work every day was like my hair was on fire and all I had to put it out was a hammer.
Telling writers to shut up is a sure way to keep them talking.
And every place and time an author writes about is imaginary, from Oz to Raymond Chandler's L.A. to Dickens's London.
Dickens is a very underrated writer at the moment. Everyone in his time admired him but I think right now he's not spoken of enough.
Something went wrong with my right arm. I no longer could throw hard, and it hurt like the dickens every time I threw.
We can trust our doctors to be professional, to minister equally to their patients without regard to their political or religious beliefs. But we can no longer trust our professors to do the same.
It is a well known urban myth that the French don't trust banks and store their money under their mattress. It's not that they are tight with money - they just don't trust anyone.
We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
Oh, I talk about things; I drive my husband insane. And I can't tell a lie. Everyone knows. I do this smile thing.
