Not even the visionary or mystical experience ever lasts very long. It is for art to capture that experience, to offer it to, in the case of literature, its readers; to be, for a secular, materialist culture, some sort of replacement for what the love of god offers in the world of faith.

If there were Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, it makes it certain there would be a reprisal attack against the United States at some point.

And so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none.

Reality is a question of perspective.

I used to say, 'There is a God-shaped hole in me.' For a long time I stressed the absence, the hole. Now I find it is the shape which has become more important.

Rock and roll music - the music of freedom frightens people and unleashes all manner of conservative defense mechanisms.

We are described into corners, and then we must describe ourselves out of corners.