There is no such thing as absolute value in this world. You can only estimate what a thing is worth to you.
I soon discovered, after I became chairman of the NEH, that, for a number of academics, the truth was not merely irrelevant - it no longer existed.
Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.
Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information.
Giving parties is a trivial avocation, but it pays the dues for my union card in humanity.
What the power structure is afraid of is that we're going to learn to recognize the truth when we hear it.
All wars come to an end, at least temporarily. But the authority acquired by the state hangs on; political power never abdicates.
A woman whose smile is open and whose expression is glad has a kind of beauty no matter what she wears.
I always hear myself saying , 'She's a beauty!' or 'He's a beauty!' or 'What a beauty!' but I never know what I'm talking about.
Refusal to believe until proof is given is a rational position; denial of all outside of our own limited experience is absurd.
I wrote a piece for the school literary magazine that now makes me think: 'My God in Heaven, this is just the worst drivel.'
Anybody that's been through a divorce, and I hope it's something people never have to experience, it's the worse thing in the world.
I've never set a book in Europe. I've lived in Europe three times, but somehow or other it wasn't the experience that engaged me in that way.
The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time.
I had had a lot of experience in bringing the Internet to Australia, and I saw that knowledge in the hands of people achieves reform.
As I have seen with a lot of companies I have covered, acquisition interest can be a heady experience, and not always in a good way.
Little children love bright, shiny things - and in my experience, most grown-up women aren't very different!
Pets inspire many different types of behaviour in their owners, mostly ranging from adoration to ridiculous obsessiveness, in my experience.
Lyrical poets have to be in touch with visceral experience. I've always tried to avoid virtual experiences. That's emerging in my fiction.
There's a vast encyclopedia of fears and phobias, and pretty much any object, experience, situation you can think of, there is someone who has a phobia of it.
Anyone who's a chef, who loves food, ultimately knows that all that matters is: 'Is it good? Does it give pleasure?'
