The only way of living in a free society is to feel that you have the right to say and do stuff.

Certainly, poverty and economic decline have a lot to do with the so-called rage of Islam. You've got all these young men in countries which are economically in bad shape. The idea that they might be able to make a good living and get married and have a family, a decent life, seems very remote to a lot of people in a lot of the world.

I think that a lot of us, whether we are religious or not - there are no words to express some things except religious words. For instance, 'soul.'

Between the adored and the adorer falls the shadow.

If you want to be a serious writer, then you have to write what there is to write about. If you're going to pull your punches and second-guess yourself and not do things because you're worried, then don't write. Stay home and do something else.

Like everybody else, I've had relationships in which I was passionately in love but was completely miserable all the time and didn't trust the person I was in love with one inch.

One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable.