Most of the utopian community ideas actually are religious. They're based more on the idea of the monastery than the commune.

The discovery there is no god is a great relief, because if there were, it would be like living in a celestial North Korea if there was one. You would never be able to escape.

I don't think the war in Afghanistan was ruthlessly enough waged.

What word or expression do you most overuse? Re-reading a collection of my stuff, I was rather startled to find that it was 'perhaps.

It's normally agreed that the question 'How are you?' doesn't put you on your oath to give a full or honest answer.

It's probably a merciful thing that pain is impossible to describe from memory

There are days when I miss my old convictions as if they were an amputated limb. But in general I feel better, and no less radical, and you will feel better too, I guarantee, once you leave hold of the doctrinaire and allow your chainless mind to do its own thinking.