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

What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.

No child's behind left.

When you consider how many millions of workdays begin with hangovers great and small, it is mildly ­surprising to find how few real descriptions of the experience our literature can boast.

Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy.

I must have been one of the least surprised people on earth on September 11. I felt very braced for that. I knew something like that was going to come.

Ordinary morality is innate in my view.