The mildest criticism of religion is also the most radical and the most devastating one. Religion is man-made.

Arguments that explain everything... explain nothing

I learned that to be amusing was not to be frivolous and that language - always the language - was the magic key as much to prose as to poetry.

I don't envy or much respect people who are completely politicised.

I say 'Merry Christmas' to people I don't know, or to people I know are Christians. I say 'Happy Hanukkah' to people I know to be or suspect to be Jewish. And I don't say 'Happy Kwanzaa,' because I think African Americans get enough insults all year round.

There are things about quitting the smoking habit for which nobody prepares you. Did I have any idea that I would indulge in long, drooling-nay, dribbling-lascivious dreams in which I was still wreathed in fragrant blue fumes? I would wake with the complete and guilty conviction that I had sinned in word and deed while I was asleep.

A Great voice has fallen silent. A great heart has stopped.