Doubt, it seems to me, is the central condition of a human being in the twentieth century.

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?

The time-honored role of the artist [is] to speak truth to power.

I grew up reading 'The Jungle Books' and loving them.

This may be the curse of human race . Not that we are different from one anther , but we are so alike .

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

Of course, there is nothing intrinsic linking any religion with any act of violence. The crusades don't prove that Christianity was violent. The Inquisition doesn't prove that Christianity tortures people. But that Christianity did torture people.