The very aspect of religions that many of their critics most fear - that the religiously devout, in the name of their faith, take positions that differ from approved state policy - is one of their strengths.

I think of my novels as entertainments.

Lots of white people think black people are stupid. They are stupid themselves for thinking so, but regulation will not make them smarter.

Love is a gift we deliver when we would rather not.

We often ask our citizens to split their public and private selves, telling them in effect that it is fine to be religious in private, but there is something askew when those private beliefs become the basis for public action.

There is much depressing evidence that the religious voice is required to stay out of the public square only when it is pressed in a conservative cause.

In real life there are indeed black people who have been in the middle class for generations, but in entertainment it's as if they don't exist.