You don't fight radical conservatism with not-quite-so radical conservatism.

If Islam is to be reconciled with modernity, these voices must be encouraged until they swell into a roar.

The world is full of things that upset people. But most of us deal with it and move on and don't try and burn the planet down.

But love is what we want, not freedom. Who then is the unluckier man? The beloved, who is given his heart's desire and must for ever after fear its loss, or the free man, with his unlooked-for liberty, naked and alone between the captive armies of the earth?

Sometimes writing a novel is not unlike having a baby. You'd have to ask a female novelist to compare the pain.

Everybody loves 'The Wire,' and I think it's okay, but in the end it's just a police series.

A little bit of one story joins onto an idea from another, and hey presto, . . . not old tales but new ones. Nothing comes from nothing.