The moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.

That's the trouble with you sad-city types: a place has to be miserable and dull as ditchwater before you believe it's real.

I think it's a very important function of art to challenge accepted reality, especially when that reality is created by powerful interest groups.

It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it.

If by some bizarre chance there turns out to be a god [...], I'm willing to bet he's an atheist too.

My horizon's have shrunk and I have only endings to write.

Certainly, poverty and economic decline have a lot to do with the so-called rage of Islam. You've got all these young men in countries which are economically in bad shape. The idea that they might be able to make a good living and get married and have a family, a decent life, seems very remote to a lot of people in a lot of the world.