Ironically, the first thing that appealed to me about Islam was its pluralism. The fact that the Koran praises all the great prophets of the past.

Compassion is a practically acquired knowledge, like dancing. You must do it and practice diligently day by day.

We are addicted to our egotism, our likes and dislikes and prejudices, and depend upon them for our own sense of identity.

Sometimes I call myself a freelance, I can't see any one of the great religions as superior to others.

The trouble with a lot of modern theology and a lot of modern thinking about God, is that we think of God a sort of being like ourselves, but bigger and better with likes and dislikes similar to our own.

You put yourself in the receptive frame of mind with which we approach music or poetry, which you can measure the difference on a neurological scanner.

Buddhists talk about nirvana in very much the same terms as monotheists describe God.