Columnists

"The moral spectacle of capitalism still offends, as does American capitalism's implacable insistence that the market determine value even in the political, intellectual, and artistic spheres."

"The problems of elites is an old one for which Americans have found no solid answer."

"We Americans really seem to be the only truly non-socialist economy on earth."

"Europeans believe in democracy - or, at least, in republican government - but they have considered the alternatives, and continue to do so, and that scandalizes Americans."

"For four hundred years European civilization has dominated the world - for better or for worse. It is convenient, and flattering, for Americans to assume that this is all over; but it very rash to do so."

"The accounts that history presents have to be paid. Past has to be reconciled with present in the life of a nation. History is an insistent force: the past is what put us where we are. the past cannot be put behind until it is settled with."

"Luiza (his oldest daughter) expressed this option in college. At the time, talked with her and school counselors. It was important to let the choice be hers and that any pressure was accompanied by homophobic colleagues. Fortunately, there was no question about their most serious option . That, remember, is personal."

"The (TV) Cultura lost his hand in an area that was the leader, tried to reinvent the wheel three times. The 'Rá-Tim-Bum', a project extremely daring and successful, was abandoned to turn the 'Castelo (Rá-Tim-Bum)', which was also very good. There had to stop. Instead of continuing, preferred to create 'Ilha Rá-Tim-Bum', which failed."

"Almost anything is edible with a dab of French mustard on it."

"Well let's face it, who on earth besides antique dealers and gay couples actually still give dinner parties?"

"It is the deep, salty stickiness of food that intrigues me more than any other quality."

"Good kitchens are not about size; they are about ergonomics and light."

"Eating, and that feel of food in the mouth, is all part of comfort and affection and warmth, and I think that a lot of the reason that I turned to food was because I was actually quite a lonely child."

"I understood that if ever one wanted to live with someone you cooked for them and they came running. But then it is my idea of hell these days, living with someone. The idea of sharing your life with someone is just utterly ghastly. I know why people do it, but it's never a good idea."

"Food is, for me, for everybody, a very sexual thing and I think I realised that quite early on. I still cannot exaggerate how just putting a meal in front of somebody is really more of a buzz for me than anything. And I mean anything. Maybe that goes back to trying to please my dad, I don't know. It's like parenting in a way I suppose."

"Food has been my career, my hobby, and, it must be said, my escape."

"I have never eaten a boiled egg, but I have had a soldier or two."

"We should never go to war unless we have been attacked or are under direct, immediate threat of attack. Never. And never again."

"George W. Bush will surely deserve that woolliest of all peace prizes, the Nobel."

"I am not a nationalist, I am a Wolfe Tone Republican. In pursuit of that ideal I have been forced to continually shift positions, much like a man in a cinema who keeps changing his seat, but only so he can get a clean view of the same film. And the title of the film, of which I never tire, is The Future Irish Republic."

"Above all, most Irish nationalists entertain the fiction of Irish exceptionalism, the false conviction that Ireland suffered more under British colonialism than any other comparable people. Let me be clear. I am not saying something nasty did not happen in the historical woodshed. What I am saying is that what happened was neither as nasty as we believe, nor did it last as long as we believe, nor was it all the work of some beastly British soldier passing by."

"The automatic assumption that everything a unionist does is wrong is not good for us. Like, how could everything that unionists do be wrong? I mean, they're not a special people. They're not a kind of special bad people."

"Far from being pro-Unionist, I do not want Ireland to be part of the United Kingdom. But, as a Wolfe Tone republican, I feel I have a firm duty to defend the rights of Protestants and Dissenters to do their own thing until such time as we can persuade them their future is in a federal Ireland."

"Before we were old enough to practise at the nets with the Burslem men, we played most of our cricket on waste land that had been trampled flat by the clogs and boots of generations of miners."

"I was brought up to believe that cricket is the most important activity in men's lives, the most important thread in the fabric of the cosmos."

"Nie Kolumb pierwszy odkrył Amerykę, ale pierwszy ją opatentował."

"Politics is a great art. It succeeds at convincing the people that they have to pay for what has been stolen from them."

"A woman withers when she is watered only with tears."

"If you do not want it to rain, always carry an umbrella."

"The first true love is always the last one."

"Man invented clothing to cover the superficial and to discover the inside."

"Women are beautiful in the light of the day, but are even more so in the shadows of the night."

"Man invented the car to comfortably sit in jams."

"Never curse an illness; better ask for health."

"The tragedy of a thoughtless man is not that he doesn't think, but that he thinks that he's thinking."

"Niewolnik marzy o wolności, człowiek wolny o bogactwie, bogacz o władzy, a władca o wolności."

"Współczesne cywilizacje są mocno skomputerroryzowane."

"Nienawiść jest jak Hydra, im więcej głów ścinasz, tym bardziej ją wzmacniasz."

"I have come to value liberated minds as the supreme good of life on earth."

"His voice, like a malted milkshake marinated for more than seventy years, has a slightly monotonous lilt - rather like a Hindu chanting Bagavad Gita."

"The only girl who ever knocked me out."

"She is not destructive - but she does have a particular facility for puncturing pomposity."

"[P]leated Trixi Schober trousers in faux-poor crushed linen, jewelled sweaters produced in Mariucca Mandelli's unmistakable hand, a sculpted Karl Lagerfeld handbag, scarves and gloves by Nanni."

"Your piece on me acted like a bicycle pump and I mooned around for ages, smiling foolishly and cannoning off the wallls."

"I had an idea of her humour from her writing and I'd always appreciated that very English brand of wit. She has a razor-sharp mind... Jani is a very sensitive and emotional person. I don't think I've got the same fine sensitivity or compassion that she has. But finding ourselves on the same wavelength as Christians is more profound and meaningful to me than anything else. Over the years we've warmed towards each other as Christians. That bond, apart from the friendship, rises above all different political ideas. It's more of a spiritual link."

"Dressing with style is akin to issuing a manifesto; dressing fashionably is like signing a petition."

"But despite the fact that everyone thinks that I'm an IFP member, I do not have any political affiliations. I support Buthelezi the man because he makes me believe that heroes still exist."

"Most of the time our discussions are political, because it's hard not to be political in this country (not like in Britain, where you can ignore the rather sedate way everything's going downhill)."

"That night I made copies of all the documents with shaking hands and gave them to a friend with contacts in the British secret services. I had a bitter taste in my mouth."

"And I think that my whole life, looking back at it, I was so rooted in worldly things, in worldly values, fame, fashion and fortune and all the things that are just transient."