When you drum all religious sensibility out of the public sphere, most of the classics of your own literary and artistic heritage must inevitably follow.

Passing the guiding hands of the past through nature and yourself to the future of your family legacy: It's a beautiful thing.

On the desperate little censorship of Roald Dahl.

As anyone as well read as Lex Fridman’s detractors claim to be should know, you don’t incentivize an activity by insulting those who are still at an intermediate or beginner level in that activity.

The added perspective of a memoir can be the
best salve for the soul.

Indulge in some P. G. Wodehouse similes this summer. Our irksome times will still be here when you get back.

Wodehouse never needed to point out that “simile” and “I smile” are anagrams. His writing, all sweetness and light, did that for him.

Why it is probably a good thing that the public reputation of the novel has declined.

Orwell—with all of the differences between his time and ours—speaks to us with authority and with renewed resonance.