As for fame, fame felt like nothing. Fame was not a sensation like love or hunger or loneliness, welling from within and invisible to the outside eye. It was rather entirely external, coming from the minds of others. It existed in the way people looked at him or behaved towards him. In that, being famous was no different from being gay, or Jewish, or from a visible minority: you are who you are, and then people project onto you some notion they have.

The worst pair of opposites is boredom and terror. Sometimes your life is a pendulum swing from one to the other.

Come aboard if your destination is oblivion- it should be our next stop. We can sit together. You can have the window seat if you want. But it's a sad view.

The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light in my heart. I would go on loving.

In my youth, it was my good luck to have a few good teachers, men and women, who came into my head and lit a match.

Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you Richard Parker!

I chose the name Pi because it's an irrational number (one with no discernable pattern). Yet scientists use this irrational number to come to a "rational" understanding of the universe. To me, religion is a bit like that, "irrational" yet with it we come together we come to a sound understanding of the universe.