I think I get from my books what other people get from family or a relationship or from prayer.

Beethoven's string quartets express pain itself; it is not MY pain.

there is no ascent to the heights without prior descent into darkness, no new life without some form of death.

Intelligence doesn't just mean tracking down terrorists; It means finding out what is in people's hearts and minds and discovering the complexity of most issues.

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

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

Geniuses are not always pleasant people.