Unlike real relationships, virtual relationships are easy to enter and to exit. They look smart and clean, feel easy to use, when compared with the heavy, slow-moving, messy real stuff.

Why do I write books? Why do I think? Why should I be passionate? Because things could be different, they could be made better.

The task for sociology is to come to the help of the individual. We have to be in service of freedom. It is something we have lost sight of.

In a consumer society, people wallow in things, fascinating, enjoyable things. If you define your value by the things you acquire and surround yourself with, being excluded is humiliating.

A lot of comedies, I think, make the wrong choice of having the straight man being this bland emotional conduit for the audience.

The job of the writer is to look at where he is now and make some sort of emotional sense of it, not only for that moment but for years to come.

Socialism appeals to better classes and has far more strength. Attack the state and you excite feelings of loyalty even among the disaffected classes; but attack the industrial system and appeal to the state, and you may have loyalty in your favor.

I think any role you need to play not so much transforms but I like to think of it as understanding the psychology of another character.