I very much dislike the intolerance and moralism of many Christians, and feel more sympathy with Honest Doubters than with them.

It is eerie being all but alone in Westminster Abbey. Without the tourists, there are only the dead, many of them kings and queens. They speak powerfully and put my thoughts into vivid perspective.

Millions of Christians can and do go through life attending church, listening to sermons, reciting the creeds and never confront the seeming contradictions, redaction and myths passed off as verifiable history.

Nearly all monster stories depend for their success on Jack killing the Giant, Beowulf or St. George slaying the Dragon, Harry Potter triumphing over the basilisk. That is their inner grammar, and the whole shape of the story leads towards it.

Everyone writes in Tolstoy's shadow, whether one feels oneself to be Tolstoyan or not.

A busybody's work is never done.

Anti-Semitism is extremely common.