A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.

"Writing is a way of thinking, it's a way of working things out."

The first fruit of this imagination - and the first lesson of the social science that embodies it - is the idea that the individual can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate only by locating himself within his period, that he can know his own chances in life only by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances.

"Great lives are like great novels - they have plot twists, character development, and moments of sheer poetry."

"我对个体不感兴趣，而是对整体感兴趣。"