On the other hand, the seventies were drab. That is, I am utterly fascinated by the fifties and sixties.

Non-pantheist models for god seem almost completely untenable to me, though not without interest.

To me the seventies represent normality, and, of course, it is a normality that is now anachronistic.

[My muse] is, in fact, a woman of the world, and precisely because of this, hopes that a diversity of cultures will endure, and that one bland monoculture does not swamp everything.

Some Buddhists, however, never seem to get past the void, and I suppose I view this as a kind of Buddhist 'Old Testament' that I don't especially like.

You focus on the here and now in order to escape existence forever and vanish into Nirvana. There is another religious impulse that is the opposite of this. It uses a world elsewhere in order to affirm life and give a reason to "go forth and multiply".

I suppose what I can say is that I do feel I have a natural spiritual sensibility.