“It seems stupid to have discovered America only to make it into a copy of another country.”

“But you see, a rich country like America can perhaps afford to be stupid.”

“If I were a Muslim, I'd probably be a jihadists'; another: Just because you invade a country stupidly doesn't mean you have to leave it stupidly.”

“Those who seem to despise half of America will never be trusted to govern any of it. Those who cherish only the country's past will not be entrusted with its future.”

“Instead of making myself write the book I ought to write, the novel that was expected of me, I conjured up the book I myself would have liked to read, the sort by an unknown writer, from another age and another country, discovered in an attic.”

“Making duplicate copies and computer printouts of things no one wanted even one of in the first place is giving America a new sense of purpose.”