The Quran is many different things, and we also have to see the Quran almost as a secondary source commenting on the Old Testament.

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

In my early 30s, I started to realise I was avoiding something on a personal level, but also as a writer. I was in denial about who I was, and was trying to be someone who I was not.

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.

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

I think that literary forms are losing their capacity to connect people to issues, to the experiences that feel most meaningful to them.

I think there is a lot of continuity between the Jewish and the Islamic traditions. We know this historically, though people don't want to talk about that - especially Muslims. There is a common source for both Judaism and Islam, or let's say that Islam finds its source in Judaism. The commonalities of practice and sensibility, ethos and mythos, create a lot of overlap.