Being A Writer Is Not The Point.

If You Have Ever, Sir, Been Through A Breakup Of A Romantic Relationship That Involved Great Love, You Will Perhaps Understand What I Experienced. There Is In Such Situations Usually A Moment Of Passion During Which The Unthinkable Is Said; This Is Followed By A Sense Of Euphoria At Finally Being Liberated; The World Seems Fresh As If Seen For The First Time Then Comes The Inevitable Period Of Doubt, The Desperate And Doomed Backpedaling Of Regret; And Only Later, Once Emotions Have Receded, Is One Able To View With Equanimity The Journey Through Which One Has Passed.

Our Countries Are Weaker: They Cannot Protect Us From Imported Goods, They Can't Protect Us From Climate Change, They Cannot Protect Us From Epidemics. These Things Cross Borders. But The Kind Of Cooperation That Would Protect Us From Those Things Was Completely Lacking And Because Of This There's Been A Backlash. People Feel Vulnerable.

I Felt Suddenly Very Young - Or Perhaps I Felt My Age.

I Was 30 When 9/11 Happened And I Had Lived Exactly 15 Years Of Life In America, So I Was Half American. I Was A Full-fledged New Yorker.

Sometimes We Are Looking For Somebody We Can Connect With On The Basis Of A Shared Past Or A Tradition Or Experience. And So Finding That You're Sitting Next To Someone Very Much Like You In Terms Of Where They Come From Is Enormously Reassuring.