Little Bush says we are at war, but we are not at war because to be at war Congress has to vote for it. He says we are at war on terror, but that is a metaphor, though I doubt if he knows what that means. It's like having a war on dandruff, it's endless and pointless.

Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent.

I believe it's my pastoral duty to convert friends to atheism.

Rome ... at its most decadent, had never thought of hiring an actor to go through the motions of being an emperor while the Praetorian Guard ruled.

There are two things you never turn down: sex and appearing on television.

To a born-again atheist like myself, it is clear that each of us has multiple selves, talents, perceptions. But to the Roman Catholic, unity is all.

I sometimes think it is because they are so bad at expressing themselves verbally that writers take to pen and paper in the first place