I have nowhere claimed nor even implied that unbelief is a guarantee of good conduct or even an indicator of it.

I don't think it's possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor.

Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.

No one has the right to tell me what to do because he has a divine warrant.

Take the risk of thinking for yourself

In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.

A melancholy lesson of advancing years is the realisation that you can't make old friends.