The cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. It's a battle you can't hope to win - it's a battle that's going to go on forever. It's part of the human condition.

I think religion should be treated with ridicule, hatred and contempt, and I claim that right.

It especially annoys me when racists are accused of 'discrimination.' The ability to discriminate is a precious faculty; by judging all members on one 'race' to be the same, the racist precisely shows himself incapable of discrimination.

Islamophobia: a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.

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.

It [defending Salmon Rushdie] was, if I can phrase it like this, a matter of everything I hated versus everything I loved. In the hate column: dictatorship, religion, stupidity, demagogy, censorship, bullying and intimidation. In the love column: literature, irony, humor, the individual and the defense of free expression.

I don't envy or much respect people who are completely politicised.