For some years I deserted religion in favour of Marxism. The republic of goodness seemed more attainable than the Kingdom of God.

It was admitted by the early rabbis that the sectarians could be as full of good works as eggs were full of meat.

I thought of such Christian inventions as the ghetto and the Jewish badge of shame. The Nazis didn't have to go very far to pick up their know-how.

I am pleased now that I have lived in a gay as well as a religious ghetto, though it hasn't been very comfortable. Taken together, their limitations cancel each other out and I have seen the world more kindly and more honestly.

This Christian poison hasn't stopped yet.

During the Second World War, evacuated to non-Jewish households, I encountered Christianity at home and in school.

The secular world is more spiritual than it thinks, just as the ecclesiastical world is more materialist than it cares to acknowledge.