If you want to draw people into the story, you really have to write as if you're writing a novel and make these actually-existing people, including the actually-existing person with my name, into a believable person on the page. And that requires distance. That requires not being right up against the events you're talking about.

If by some bizarre chance there turns out to be a god [...], I'm willing to bet he's an atheist too.

The problem of telling contemporary history is that your message gets outdated.

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

I reluctantly concluded that there was no way for me to help bring into being the Muslim culture I'd dreamed of, the progressive, irreverent, skeptical, argumentative, playful and unafraid culture which is what I've always understood as freedom.... Actually Existing Islam ... which makes literalism a weapon and redescription a crime, will never let the likes of me in.

Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today.

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