I think that most of the action in religion is around the home, is in families, and is in individual lives, and they can go on their own searches, watch their own TV shows, read their own books, form their own groups and discuss it, but that's where the action is - on the home front.

Here's a confession: I hate parenting books. I hate the ones that are earnest and repetitive.

I'd say my best memory was climbing Mt. Fuji, and the worst memory was... trying to fit my feet into the free giveaway slippers at Japanese schools.

The way to tell a really big story, I think, is to tell a really small story.

The higher the joy is not the light, it's the reflection. The greater pleasure is not climbing up; it's handing down

When I was growing up, I, like many Jews, cheered what appeared to be the receding of faith from everyday life. The further religion got from our lives the better our lives would get, I thought, because persecution had been such a burden to Jewish families for generations.

Americans know more about religion than almost any other topic.