When 9/11 hit, the second thing I said to myself was, 'This really is what religious people do.' Those people flying the plane were very good, very pious, truly faithful believers. There's no other way to paint them. Of course, they are extremists by definition, but they certainly aren't going against Islam in any real way.

Mentally ill people come from all belief systems.

There are performers who have built their whole career doing magic on TV and can't really perform live at all - don't really have jobs and skills.

Poker has the feeling of a sport, but you don't have to do push-ups.

TV networks are dying. The death throes of religion give us jihads. The death throes of television give us reality shows.

Democracy without respect for individual rights sucks. It's just ganging up against the weird kid, and I'm always the weird kid.

I'm a big fan of gospel music, and you cannot be a fan of rock and roll, you cannot be a fan of country western music, and you can't really be a fan of jazz without listening to a lot of music that's religious.