In the absence of evidence, superstition. It's a Middle Ages thing. That's my theory anyway.

I think Michael Moore is loathsome, though, not because he dislikes Bush, but because he seems to dislike America.

I have no way of knowing how people really feel, but the vast majority of those I meet couldn't be nicer. Every once in a while someone barks at me. My New Year's resolution is not to bark back.

It is increasingly important to be open-minded.

Who laughs less than feminists?

American officials have bent over backwards to show how sensitive they are to Muslim culture. It didn't seem very effective. They seem to be worried about winning the respect of other people.

It's hard to be ambitious if you're content, isn't it?

Living in Washington, you can't take politics too seriously. I draw the line at honesty. I have no time for political hacks who say things they don't believe because they get paid to.

In the absence of evidence, superstition. It's a Middle Ages thing. That's my theory anyway.

The two things I was positive about in life were that I was going to be a teacher at a boarding school or an operative with the CIA posted abroad. I could write a book about all the things I was sure about.

Unless you know a lot more about something than I do, I am not really that interested. I have too much information already.

There are legitimate, even powerful arguments, to be made against the Bush administration's foreign policy. But those arguments are complicated, hard to explain, and, in the end, not all that sensational.

I don't care what anybody thinks.

Billy Tauzin is one of the most interesting people in Washington. He is smart, funny, and interesting.

The Clinton era is over. I think that there would even have been a certain amount of rejoicing among some Republicans if Gore had won or if Ralph Nader had won or if Satan had won.

Studies have shown people listen to TV than watch it.

I am not insecure about being a journalist.

I was up late last night yapping about the elections on CNN and up early this morning doing the same thing in my daughter's kindergarten class.

I can't wait to work for Rick Kaplan. He's a great producer. I would host an infomercial if he would produce it.

Canadians are so easily wounded.

As a print journalist, you can be frustrated by people who don't call you back, parts of the story you can't get. TV gets you access to everyone because people call you back. It also allows you to satisfy your curiosity. I am a very curious person.

If it was up to the U.N., Saddam Hussein would still be killing his own people.

I have never been one to look beyond today.

The one thing I'm convinced George W. Bush is good at is bipartisanship. It's clearly something he enjoys personally.

I try to tell the truth.

To politicize a man's tragic death is about as low as you can go, isn't it?

To be a feminist, you could cut your hair really short. You have to be really angry about something.

It is nice to be around people who think differently than you. They challenge your ideas and keep you from being complacent.

I am really only interested in new information, not freelance opinion. I don't really care what you think off the top of your head.

Animals shouldn't be mistreated.

I'm a foot soldier in the war on Christmas. And the war on puppies and sunshine.

Without feeling abashed by my ignorance, I confess that I am absolutely unable to say. In the absence of an appearance of learning, my answer has at least one merit, that of perfect sincerity.

That a great battle must soon be fought no one could doubt; but, in the apparent and perhaps real absence of plan on the part of Lee, it was impossible to foretell the precise scene of the encounter.

Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair.

Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.

With the absence of a flu vaccination last year, I did not take a flu shot; but there is still some immunity that carries over from year to year; but about every 30 years, there is a major change in the genetics of the flu virus.

And as far as false hope, there is no such thing. There is only hope or the absence of hope-nothing else.

The longest absence is less perilous to love than the terrible trials of incessant proximity.

Life has become the ideology of its own absence.

There is a movement to get an international criminal court in the world, voted for by hundreds of states-but with the noticeable absence of the United States of America.

I wish you to inform the Court that my absence, though deliberate, is not intended in any way to be disrespectful. Nor is it prompted by any fear of the punishment which might be inflicted on me.

Where choice begins, Paradise ends, innocence ends, for what is Paradise but the absence of any need to choose this action?

In the absence of that, I am happy to play solo, but I don't think there is any comparison.

For many Americans, including many who are employed, going to the doctor when they fall ill or become injured may not be an option because of the absence of health insurance.

The situation in the region is flammable and may explode at any moment, because of the crucial events and because of the absence of justice in executing the international legitimacy resolutions, regarding the Israeli Arab cause and the oppression on Palestinians by Israelis.

It is the maintenance of slavery by law in a state, not parallels of latitude, that makes its a southern state; and the absence of this, that makes it a northern state.

My dear, the duty that devolved wholly on you in my absence of guiding and expanding the minds of our dear children is a laborious one and a responsible one.

So far as discipline is concerned, freedom means not its absence but the use of higher and more rational forms as contrasted with those that are lower or less rational.