"While we remain a nation decisively shaped by religious faith, our politics and our culture are, in the main, less influenced by movements and arguments of an explicitly Christian character than they were even five years ago. I think this is a good thing - good for our political culture."

"The middle class, one of the great achievements in history, is becoming more of a relic than a reality."

"The government invented the Internet."

"The traditional religious right's failure to restore public-school prayer or pass an antiabortion constitutional amendment has likely helped fuel the spread of the more extreme dominionist school."

"I feel like I write songs for the future or something. Not in an arrogant way, but I feel like maybe my songs were, like, before their time or something."

"I've never been a fast reader. I'm fickle; I don't finish books I start; I put a book aside for five, ten years and then take it up again."

"I like directing. It takes a lot out of you, but I'd like to do it again - I just have to find a story I want to tell."

"Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours."