I think the cultural task is to separate our impulses and needs and desires from the supernatural and, above all, from the superstitious.

No, nothing is sacred. And even if there were to be something called sacred, we mere primates wouldn't be able to decide which book or which idol or which city was the truly holy one. Thus, the only thing that should be upheld at all costs and without qualification is the right of free expression, because if that goes, then so do all other claims of right as well.

Not many people come through esophageal cancer and live to talk about it, or not for long.

Anyone who can look me in the eye and say they prefer the story of Moses or Jesus or Mohammed to the life of Socrates is intellectually defective.

Ronald Reagan used to alarm other constituencies by speaking freely about the End Times foreshadowed in the Bible.

The crucial distinction between systems...was no longer ideological. The main political difference was between those who did, and those who did not, believe that the citizen could -- or should -- be the property of the state.

I don't even like showing my stuff to publishers and editors much.