It would have been very alarming - morally, and in other ways too - if an attack of that nature, the 11 September attacks, had not aroused in us and in our governments and societies the spirit of self-defence. If that had not been one of the responses it seems to me there would have been very grave cause for concern.

If you want to stay in for the long haul, and lead a life that is free from illusions either propagated by you or embraced by you, then I suggest you learn to recognize and avoid the symptoms of the zealot and the person who knows he is right. For the dissenter, the skeptical mentality is at least as important as any armor of principle.

I'd like to prove to other people that it's not the end of everything to be diagnosed with cancer.

I'd always somehow felt slightly as if I'd been born in the wrong country.

It's much worse to see a woman drunk than a man: I don't know quite why this is true but it just is. Don't ever be responsible for it.

My political life has been informed by the view that if there was any truth to religion there wouldn't really be any need for politics.

Pakistan has to export a lot of uneducated people, many of whom have become infected with the most barbaric reactionary ideas.