I determined to make my peace with Islam, even at the cost of my pride. Those who were surprised and displeased by what I did perhaps failed to see that ... I wanted to make peace between the warring halves of the world, which were also the warring halves of my soul.

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

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

I learned: the first lesson of my life: nobody can face the world with his eyes open all the time.

The mistake of the West was to put the Sauds on the throne of Saudi Arabia and give them control of the world's oil fortune, which they then used to propagate Wahhabi Islam.

One of the strange things about violent and authoritarian regimes is they don't like the glare of negative publicity.

I discovered that if you find the language to talk to younger readers, children can accept anything.