What happened in Pakistan was that people were told: You're all Muslim, so now you're a country. As we saw in 1971 with the Bangladesh secession, the answer to that was: 'Oh no, we're not.'

Prophet Mohammed would have no objection to The Satanic Verses.

The response of anybody interested in liberty is that we all have a say and the ability to have an argument is exactly what liberty is, even though it may never be resolved. In any authoritarian society the possessor of power dictates, and if you try and step outside he will come after you.

What grows best in the heat: fantasy; unreason; lust.

Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one.

If you actually want to change your world, there is a better way of doing it than blowing yourself up.

Once you put a thought into the world, it can be disagreed with, but it can't be unthought.