The mugger who is arrested is back on the street before the police officer, but the person mugged may not be back on the street for a long time, if ever.

People asked me what I want as an epitaph: 'He tried'

We believe in encouraging the talented, but we believe that while survival of the fittest may be a good working description of the process of evolution, a government of humans should elevate itself to a higher order.

In the end, I'm convinced we will all benefit if suspicion is replaced by discussion, innuendo by dialogue; if the emphasis in our debate turns from a search for talismanic criteria and neat but simplistic answers to an honest - more intelligent - attempt at describing the role religion has in our public affairs, and the limits placed on that role.

I somehow got this reputation of diddling and dithering. I don't remember dithering at all.

Those two principles: We're supposed to love one another and we're supposed to work together to make the experience better. That's all the religion you need, really, to make a success of this planet.

We are disgusted by the things that we desire, and we desire what disgusts us.