I'm working on my own life story. I don't mean I'm putting it together; no, I'm taking it apart. - Margaret Atwood

Totalitarianisms may crumble from within, as they fail to keep the promises that brought them to power; or they may be attacked from without; or both. There are no sure-fire formulas, since very little in history is inevitable

It’s always encouraging to be told that it is intellectually acceptable to read the sorts of things that you like to read anyway.

Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.