I am continually trying to find meaning in the world. If we cannot find some ultimate significance or value in our lives, we fall very easily into despair.

I have a very sharp tongue, I'm very impatient, and it's a lifelong struggle.

There are some forms of religion that are bad, just as there's bad cooking or bad art or bad sex, you have bad religion too.

Even before 9/11 I was gripped by a sense of dread: our lack of criticism about what we were doing in the Middle East - the slagging off of a whole religious tradition.

All religions are designed to teach us how to live, joyfully, serenely, and kindly, in the midst of suffering.

If it is not tempered by compassion, and empathy, reason can lead men and women into a moral void.

Like art, religion is an imaginative and creative effort to find a meaning and value in human life.