I had an impression that she was waiting for me to say something in reply, but words had abandoned me. Instead, my thoughts were engaged in a struggle to maintain a facial expression what would not appear idiotic.

She listened to me speak with a series of smiles, as though she were sipping at my descriptions and finding them to her taste.

One ought not to encourage beggars. It is far better to donate to charities that address the causes of poverty rather than to him, a creature who is merely its symptom.

I was aware of an advantage conferred upon me by my foreignness, and I tried to utilize it as much as I could.

You’re a watchful guy; you know where that comes from? It comes from feeling out of place. Believe me, I know.

Is it not a sin? Yes, it certainly is – and so, for that matter, is coveting they neighbor’s wife.

There was nothing overtly objectionable in what he had said; indeed, his was a summary with some knowledge, much like the short news items on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. But his tone – with a typical American undercurrent of condescension – struck a negative chord with me.

When he removed his sunglasses, his eye contained the sort of cosmic openness with exposure to LSD.

I am no sociopath; I am not indifferent to the suffering of others. When I hear of acquaintances that have been diagnosed with a serious illness, I feel a sympathetic pain, a twinge in my kidneys strong enough to elicit a wince. When I am approached for a donation to charity, I tend to be forthcoming, at least insofar as my modest means allow me. So when I tell you I was pleased at the slaughter of thousands of innocents, I do so with a profound sense of perplexity. At the moment, my thoughts were not with the victims of the attack. No, I was caught up in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to her knees.

Ah, I see I am only compounding you displeasure. I understand, of course; it is hateful to hear another person gloat over one’s country’s misfortune. But sure you cannot be completely innocent of such feelings yourself. Do you feel no joy at the video clips – so prevalent these days –of American munitions laying waste to structures of your enemies?

I see I have offended you, angered you even. But I have not, I suspect, entirely surprised you.

Most people resist change. Power comes from becoming change.

A purely carnivorous feast, one that harks back to an era before man’s knowledge of cholesterol made him fearful of his prey – and all the more delectable for it.

I had always thought of America as a nation that looked forward; for the first time I was struck by its determination to look back.

I must admit that my motives were not entirely noble; there were in me at least some elements of anger and hut vanity that characterize a spurned lover, and these unworthy sentiments helped me to keep my distance.

Our creed was one which valued above al else maximum productivity, and such a creed was for me doubly reassuring because it was quantifiable and hence knowable.

In History, as I suspect you – An American – will agree, it is the thrust of one’s narrative that counts, not the accuracy of one’s details. Still I can assure that you that everything I have told you thus far happened, for all interest and purposes, more or less as I have described.
I had always resented the manner in which America conducted itself in the world; your country’s constant interference in the affairs of other was insufferable. Vietnam, Korea, Taiwan, the Middle East… In each of the major conflicts and standoffs that ringed my mother continent of Asia, America played a central role. Moreover I know that in the alternating periods of American aid and sanctions, that finance was the primary means by which the American empire exercised its power.

You wish to pay half? Absolutely not besides, here we pay all or we pay none. You remind me of how alien I found the concept of acquaintances splitting a bill when I first arrived in your country. I had been raised to favor mutual generosity over mathematical precision in such matters given time both work equality well to even a score.

It seems to me that America was engaged only in posturing. As a society, you were unwilling to reflect upon the shared pain that united you with those who attacked you. You retreated into myths of your own difference, assumptions of your own superiority. And you acted out this belief on the stage of the world, so that the entire planet was rocked by the repercussions of you tantrums. Such an America has to be stopped in the interest not only of the rest of humanity, but also in your own.

Fortunately, I poses the aspects of stature and appearance that tend to give ruffians pause.

No country inflects death so readily upon the inhabitants of other countries, frightens so many people so far away, as America.