Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.

Live on, survive, for the earth gives forth wonders. It may swallow your heart, but the wonders keep on coming. You stand before them bareheaded, shriven. What is expected of you is attention.

For every snake, there is a ladder; for every ladder,a snake

If my child had prejudice in his head, I'd be ashamed. I would see it as my failure as a parent.

Believe in your own eyes and you'll get into a lot of trouble, hot water, a mess.

The accidents of my life have given me the ability to make stories in which different parts of the world are brought together, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes in conflict, and sometimes both - usually both. The difficulty in these stories is that if you write about everywhere you can end up writing about nowhere.

There is a widespread difficulty in the Muslim world, which has to do with how the people are taught about examining their own history. A whole range of stuff has been placed off limits.