So, we think about God far to easily and that's because of a lot of social, intellectual, and scientific changes that have taken place in the western world and that has made God very problematic for a lot of people.

Fundamentalists are not friends of democracy. And that includes your fundamentalists in the United States.

Compassion doesn't, of course, mean feeling sorry for people, or pity, which is how the word has become emasculated in a way.

I had tried, as I thought as a nun, to open myself to God and God seemed totally uninterested in me. The heavens remained closed and opaque. I now realize, of course, that I had a very, very inadequate idea of God. I was expecting clouds to part, a little sort of whisper in my ear, and of course, that's not what God is. God is not another being; we are talking about something much more profound.

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

Compassion is not a popular virtue

Compassion is not feeling sorry for others. It's not soft. It requires an intellectual effort.