In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?

When...did it become irrational to dislike religion, any religion, even to dislike it vehemently? When did reason get redescribed as unreason? When were the fairy stories of the superstitious placed above criticism, beyond satire? A religion was not a race. It was an idea, and ideas stood (or fell) because they were strong enough (or too weak) to withstand criticism, not because they were shielded from it. Strong ideas welcomed dissent.

A man is sane only to the extent that he subscribes to a previously-agreed construction of reality.

Free speech is life itself.

All art began as sacred art, you know? I mean, all painting began as religious painting. All writing began as religious writing.

When thought becomes excessively painful, action is the finest remedy.

Liberate yourself, because no one else is going to liberate you