We have a deep sense of American equality and opportunity, and that informs the way in which we brought our American power to the world, because we thought that other nations were entitled to that same opportunity in a rules-based system.
Two World Wars are sufficient and we are the ones who supported this notion of a united Europe, so there would never be another set of civil wars in Europe again, ever. That was a fabulous success. It was so fabulous that people now take it for granted.
We did really well for a generation after 1989 and the fall of communism. Our liberal values expanded in the world, our prosperity expanded.
Our mistakes, blunders, flaws, and shortcomings notwithstanding, the world America made after 1945 and 1989 has enjoyed the longest period of general peace in the west since Roman times, and decades of prosperity.
America's security and prosperity didn't work unless other nations were also secure, and prosperous. There had to be something in it for them, so we weren't looking simply to grab territory, or widen our sphere of influence, or anything like that. We wanted to make the world a better place, and get very rich in the process.
All the good things of the world are no further good to us than as they are of use; and of all we may heap up we enjoy only as much as we can use, and no more.
I don't see the world in sexual divisions.
I think politics has an influence on my work now, perhaps more so than when I was a childless young man, but I hope never to deal with these kinds of issues in anything more than a covert manner. I'm more interested in figuring out what I think than in pronouncing my views to the world.
The world lies right beyond the handlebars of any bicycle.
I don't believe that the entire world is constantly anti-Semitic.
I'm not naive. I know perfectly well that there isn't a single Arab or Muslim in the world who would say: There has to be a Jewish state in the Middle East.
I’m saying there is evil in the world,” Master Kit said, hefting the box on his hip, “and doubt is the weapon that guards against it.
You have to believe in yourself before the world has given you any indication that you should believe in yourself as a writer.
It's easier in an urban world to cast the blame outward. So I've learned a lot about my own process in that way.
When I was starting out there was no Internet, there wasn't this sense that you could be connected to other writers around the world. And that created a kind of innocence, or parochial quality, even in NYC.
The Internet and all its lures are much, much harder than anything I've ever encountered. If you're writing on a computer, the very instrument you're writing on is already tainted by the world out there in all its permutations.
What affected me the most about the Beatles was that they were the biggest band in the world and they could have done anything they wanted.
I love librarians. They always make me feel like the world’s gonna be AOK.
There's lots of things that can't make it in the world that are worth making. There are lots of great artists who never make it, there are lots of great writers who don't get published - is it still worthwhile? Aren't we glad people are still doing it?
I like the challenge of creating a world with only sentences.
We come into this world naked, covered in our own blood, screaming in terror - and it doesn't have to stop there if you know how to live right
I want to leave the world as I entered it: naked and crying in a room full of strangers.
Art is an irreplaceable way of understanding and expressing the world.
If, as consumers, we can change our mindset so that we see gnarled, twisted, lumpy or otherwise imperfect produce as beautiful, we can create demand, change the system and ultimately help feed the world.
If we accept imperfect food, we can indeed change the world for the better.
