Even in the most favourable periods for cultural development , Intellectuals tend to have uneasy relationship with the status quo.

Intellectuals are not defined according to the jobs they do, but [by] the manner in which they act, the way they see themselves, and the values that they uphold.

I'm not one of those James Joyce intellectuals who can stand back and look at the whole edifice... It was a slow process for me to just crawl out of it, like a snake leaving his skin behind.

[Perhaps what we can learn from SARS is perspective.] There are very real threats, but they don't always have to follow a Hollywood disaster movie script, ... Flu epidemics do occur. It's part of our human experience. We've survived it before and we're in a much better position to deal with it now than ever before. We have ways to contain these things that would've been unthinkable even 10 years ago.

We are creating a new security state for children,

Parenting has become so intertwined with your identity that the way your child looks is seen as a direct extension of yourself. Having a particular buggy is a way of projecting your own desires and fantasies to the rest of the world.