I think the story of the Christian faith is how you can become more deeply and fully human, not how you can become religious. And I don't see any indication that being religious makes you more moral.

I don't make that decision [what next book will be] until I've read enough to know that I've got something different to say and I know how to say it.

The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history.

I prepare for death by living.

Pat Robertson said the feminist movement was just a bunch of lesbians who wanted to leave their husbands and kill their children. I quoted him in my book. It's a fantastic statement.

Another [book on Matthew] is Amy-Jill Levine, who is a Jewish woman who teaches New Testament at the Vanderbilt School of Religion. It's a group of essays by mostly womanly scholars looking at Matthew's gospel through feminists' eyes - very exciting. It opens up all sorts of things that I've never thought about.

I've never known about anyone being helped by being told how wretched, miserable, sinful, and evil they are.