It is a remarkable coincidence that almost everyone has the same religion as their parents and it always just so happens they're the right religion.

I read novels for entertainment rather than for edification, so I tend not to read the sort of novels that are said to illuminate the human condition.

Science is the poetry of reality.

My mind is open to the most wonderful range of future possibilities, which I cannot even dream about.

Everybody is an atheist in saying that there is a god - from Ra to Shiva - in which he does not believe. All that the serious and objective atheist does is to take the next step and to say that there is just one more god to disbelieve in.

You can't understand European history at all other than through religion, or English literature either if you can't recognise biblical allusions.

I think from my point of view - I won't say it doesn't matter whether [Darwinian explanations] are right or wrong, it's just sufficient in some cases, for me, to be able to say, Well, at least it's not totally implausible from a Darwinian point of view.