Most anger stems from feelings of weakness, sadness and fear: hard to remember when one is at the receiving end of its defiant roar.

Religions are so subtle, so complicated, so intelligent in many ways that they're not fit to be abandoned to the religious alone; they're for all of us.

Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone - and finding that that's ok with them.

The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness".

The fear of saying something stupid (which stupid people never have) has censored far more good ideas than bad ones.

Without sex, we would be dangerously invulnerable. We might believe we were not ridiculous. We wouldn't know rejection and humiliation so intimately.

Forcing people to eat together is an effective way to promote tolerance.