“It is quite common to hear high officials in Washington and elsewhere speak of changing the map of the Middle East, as if ancient societies and myriad peoples can be shaken up like so many peanuts in a jar.”

“The Middle East was not a wilderness, and the people there were not savages: if anything they were over civilized. Too many American newcomers to the East saw it in frontier terms.”

“Your fate is like a new jar of peanut butter. It may be sealed, but you can choose whether it is smooth or crunchy.”

“I would rather they did not speak of it at all, until I am out of the district."Mrs. Bennet was all amazement."Until you are out of the district, child! What else are people to speak of when they hear you are to marry a man so rich, so highly placed in society, so... rich?”

“Things do change and, unlike the Middle East and the traffic in Los Angeles, sometimes they can even get better.”

“On one level, Americans are too distant from the Middle East, too naive to understand its complexities and history. On another, it's the people who show up in Washington-Iranian and Arab exiles nursing a grudge, with time on their hands and money to pay for a hotel-who influence U.S. policy by default. They color Washington's view of the world, drawing us into foreign adventures we have no business being in.”