I don't have an ideal reader. I'm trying to reach something simple and, I believe, universal, in every single person.

I can't be a spokesman for anything other than my own concerns. I have to be free to wrestle with my own preoccupations, and if I'm bringing any political awareness to that process, that mitigates my freedom.

I don't want to test that simple sense of being human. I don't want to transform it.

Religion has been an important part of my understanding, my inquiry into what it means to be human.

The secret of a happy life is respect. Respect for yourself and respect for others.

I'm a storyteller. I feel like the issue of discourse is an important one because there's a lot of political and ideological discourse that goes around, and we relate to that on an intellectual level.

I feel like that religions generally ask the biggest questions. They may not always have the best answers, but they're the zone of human activity that regularly asks the biggest questions.