Grit can't be measured on pop quizzes, but it can often predict long-term success more than mere intelligence.

A big reason I'd spent my career as a writer and not a public speaker is that I am a person who refines my worldview in a silent room, waiting for my thoughts to arrange themselves on the screen before me.

My grandfather arrived in Houston in 1942 as a refugee from Nazi Germany. He had lost everything - his profession, his language, his money - but the city welcomed him, as it has hundreds of thousands of immigrants over the years.

In my career as a writer, I preferred to avoid current events: I wrote young adult novels and book reviews and lifestyle journalism about health and parenting and other such evergreens.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

We believe that this is not right for a democracy to make revolutions the beacon of promoting democracy.

Under the Trump tax plan, we are no longer going to subsidize big government in blue states. Now those who choose to live in blue states are going to have to join with their neighbors, collect their pitchforks, and demand tax and spending cuts from city hall and the state capital.

Many do not understand how precarious Western civilization is and what a joy it is. From it, we get real democracy. From it, we get the sort of intellectual tolerance that allows me to propound something that may be completely alien to you.