“It is in middles that extremes clash, where ambiguity restlessly rules.” — John Updike In the full range and breadth of society, there are many claimants to power. None have proved enduring. The church, the nobility, and all the rest have had their time in the sun and it has faded away. Today’s power nodules […]

“If Mitt Romney is vanilla, Chris Christie is three hefty scoops of Rocky Road topped with whipped cream, Red Bull, and gravel.” — Ron Fournier Not so long ago, there were peasants, and there were knights. The knights were the minor nobility who, in exchange for their land and their peasants, served the king militarily […]

“The main thing for me is I really like strong endings. If there’s a strong ending, you can take more time in the beginning, your first act can be really quite different.” — Tony Gilroy “I can’t really change my life to accommodate people who are jealous. I don’t see why I should.” — Sting […]

“America is beyond power; it acts as in a dream, as a face of God. Wherever America is, there is freedom, and wherever America is not, madness rules with chains, darkness strangles millions. Beneath her patient bombers, paradise is possible.” — John Updike I was having an argument with a friend of mine about America’s […]

“What mattered in the Cold War was weight — how big are your missiles? How heavy are your tanks? What matters in globalization is speed. How fast is your modem? How good are your communications?” — Gavin Esler “There were sharks before there were dinosaurs, and the reason sharks are still in the ocean is […]

We are living in a veritable Golden Age on Earth. The threat of war, for most, has receded into a bad dream in human annals. One metric of a good society is how rich and varied its entertainment options are. There are more books and movies being produced of quality than ever before. The entertainers […]

“Curious people are interesting people; I wonder why that is.” — Bill Maher In Hollywood, it always rains after a blockbuster is released. That’s what Barry Arntorp, executive producer extraordinaire, says after he’s been sequestered away with a bottle of “sparkling wine” — Barry despises champagne, but likes the effect, so he gets “sparkling wine” […]

“I think it’s great when stories are dark and strange and weirdly personal.” — Robin Williams “Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.” — Aldous Huxley Edgar Pace, Northern Texas’s most notorious serial killer, rode the highways and byways of […]

“For tribal man space was the uncontrollable mystery. For technological man it is time that occupies the same role.” — Marshall McLuhan The Pope, standing safely ensconced in his protective Popemobile, made a luscious target for any professional. The cyborg assassin was the single most threat to the Pope’s life. Caught out in the open, […]

“The artist one day falls through a hole in the brambles, and from that moment he is following the dark rapids of an underground river which may sometimes flow so near to the surface that the laughing picnic parties are heard above.” — Cyril Connolly “The only way for writers to meet is to share […]