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.

Normally when I read, I don't like music playing.

In Iran, fundamentalism was fuelled to an extent by the regime of the Shah being supported by the West.

Even when things are at their worst, there's a little voice in your head saying, 'Good story!'

To respect Louis Farrakhan, we must understand, is simply to agree with him... If dissent is now also to be thought of as a form of 'dissing,' then we have indeed succumbed to the thought police.

I admit it: above all things, I fear absurdity.

I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.