For the people who ostensibly wish me well or are worried about my immortal soul, I say I take it kindly.

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

Suppose there were groups of secularists at hospitals who went round the terminally ill and urged them to adopt atheism: 'Don't be a mug all your life. Make your last days the best ones. People might suppose this was in poor taste.

In a Pyongyang restaurant, don't ever ask for a doggie bag.

I'm not particularly a feminist, but if you get women off the animal cycle of reproduction and give them some say in how many children they'll have, immediately the floor will rise.

Knowing that we are primates, I think, is a fascinating discovery, and a very interesting and rather cheering one.

Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse.