Bin Laden was born filthy rich and died in a rich man's house, which he had painstakingly built to the highest specifications.

Airport security exists to guard us against terrorist attacks.

What is needed is a move beyond tradition, nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadist ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows to let in much-needed fresh air.... It is high time, for starters, that Muslims were able to study the revelation of their religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it.... Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.

Our lives, our stories, flowed into one another's, were no longer our own, individual, discrete.

perhaps, if one wishes to remain an individual in the midst of the teeming multitudes, one must make oneself grotesque.

What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness; second, their imagination, and third, their industry.

How do you defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized.