Zoo is an artificial territory, an approximation. Civilization is our natural territory.

Religion is more than rite and ritual.

The presence of God is the finest of rewards.

Sometimes I got my majors mixed up. A number of my fellow religious-studies students - muddled agnostics who didn't know which way was up, who were in the thrall of reason, that fool's gold for the bright - reminded me of the three-toed sloth; and the three-toed sloth, such a beautiful example of the miracle of life, reminded me of God.

When the course of experience made me see that there is no saviour and no special grace, no remission beyond the human, that pain is to be endured and fades, if it fades, only with time, then God became nothing to me but a dyslexic dog, with neither bark nor bite.

Words are cold, muddy toads trying to understand sprites dancing in a field-but they're all we have.

Just as music is noise that makes sense, a painting is colour that makes sense, so a story is life that makes sense.