Ironically Latin American countries in their instability give writers and intellectuals the hope that they are needed.

The people on my mum's side of the family are atheist intellectuals who are ueber-proper. My dad's side of the family are missionaries who are more comfortable sitting around in sweatpants than they are in a five-star restaurant. But those two influences converged in my life.

Intellectuals try to keep going. But their situation is very difficult. Those who have had the courage to voice their opposition have often paid a very high price.

We as conservative intellectuals should not be in the business of making excuses for bad parliamentary decisions by Republican leaders in Congress.

My wife and I unlike many intellectuals spent five years working on assembly lines. We came to fully understand the criticisms of the industrial age in which you are an appendage of a machine that sets the pace.